Follow-up directives for civil servants issued

JAKARTA (JP): The State Employees Administration issued two detailed directives for civil servants wishing to abandon the bureaucracy for politics, Minister/State Secretary Akbar Tandjung said on Monday.

The directives were a follow up to Government Regulation No. 12/1999 on civil servants' neutrality, Akbar said during a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission II for domestic and foreign political affairs. He said the campaign to familiarize the public with the directives began on Feb. 1.

The directives, dated Jan. 29, inform civil servants of the procedures they must follow if they wish to join political parties.

Government Regulation No. 12/1999 is a revision of Government Regulation No. 5/1999, which caused an uproar because it was seen as favoring Golkar. The regulation itself was demanded as a means to ensure that Golkar would no longer be able to exploit civil servants for its political interests.

Regulation No. 12/1999 states that civil servants can join or become executives of political parties if their "direct supervisors" give them permission to resign from the bureaucracy.

The new directives define "direct supervisors" as follows:

* portfolio Cabinet Ministers are the direct supervisors for secretary-generals, director generals, inspector generals, heads of state agencies, rectors of state universities/institutes/colleges, governors and other officials of the same rank in ministries.

* the minister/state secretary is the direct supervisor for heads of state agencies under nonportfolio ministries, heads of the secretariats of high state bodies and heads of other high offices appointed by the President.

* the attorney general is the direct supervisor for deputy attorney generals and other officials of the same rank in the office.

* any officials who directly supervise civil servants.

In addition, civil servants wishing to join political parties must report to their direct supervisors within three months after formally becoming members or executives of the parties.

Their direct supervisors would then be obliged to present a receipt acknowledging that they had received the report. The direct supervisors, would, in turn, be obliged to file their own report to "officials with authority" within two days.

The "officials with authority" would then carefully consider the reports and decide, within the 15 days, whether or not to grant a leave for the civil servant in question to join a political party.

Those who are granted a leave would later be honorably discharged from the civil service. Within a month of first making their report, the civil servant in question would be able to officially leave the bureaucracy.

Also during the hearing presided over by legislator Hadi Sutrisno, Akbar revealed that the government had retrieved Rp 5.73 trillion from seven charitable foundations chaired by former president Soeharto.

Akbar said that the government retrieved Rp 1.19 trillion from the Dharmais Foundation, Rp 1.19 trillion from the Dakab Foundation, Rp 1.25 trillion from the Supersemar Foundation, Rp 215 billion from the Amal Bhakti Muslim Pancasila Foundation, Rp 1.7 trillion from the Dana Sejahtera Mandiri Foundation, Rp 79.3 billion from the Gotong Royong Foundation and Rp 22.5 billion from the Trikora Foundation.

The retrieved money will be managed in accordance with Presidential Decree No. 195/1998, which states that the coordinating minister for people's welfare and poverty eradication will manage the fund on behalf of the government, Akbar said.

The coordinating minister is authorized to appoint professionals to manage the fund for the greatest benefit of the people and poverty eradication programs, he said.

During the commission meeting, legislators asked Akbar about the gold, jewelry and cash donated by many Indonesians during Soeharto's "Love Indonesia" campaign meant to alleviate the impact of the economic crisis.

Akbar said the campaign, which began in January 1998, raised a total of Rp 17 billion in cash. The money went into state coffers, he added.

In addition, a total of 261.6 kilograms of gold in the form of jewelry had also been collected. This gold was auctioned off last December, raising a total of Rp 5.25 billion which was also in state coffers, Akbar said.

Some of the funds had been used to send aid to poor people in the provinces which donated cash and gold during the campaign, while the remaining Rp 12 billion was being kept in state coffers to provide further assistance. (01/aan/swe)