Follow-up directives for civil servants issued

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)