Governor fires 37 city officials for misconduct

JAKARTA (JP): Thirty-seven city administration officials have been fired for violating regulations and codes of conduct, Governor Sutiyoso said yesterday.

Speaking at the flag-hoisting ceremony at City Hall to commemorate Jakarta's 471th anniversary, Sutiyoso said that the 37 dismissed officials were among 251 employees who had been sanctioned for a number of offenses.

"I am very disappointed to see that there are still so many of my officials who have to be punished with such administrative sanctions," he said.

Sutiyoso said 27 of the officials had been demoted and eight others had had their salaries slashed for their misconduct.

Fourteen other employees were given an official notice of poor performance, 69 officials were given a less stern written reprimand and the remaining 96 officials were only warned.

Deputy Governor for Administrative Affairs Abdul Kahfi said the sanctions were given to the 251 officials in line with suggestions from the city's newly established Commission on Reform Control and Supervision.

Kahfi made the remark after attending the City Council's extraordinary plenary session to commemorate Jakarta's anniversary.

The commission began assessing the administration's civil servants in the middle of last month. All the disobedient officials were questioned thoroughly, Kahfi said. "We've ... recorded all the examination processes in the dossiers."

Kahfi, who is the head of the commission, said that the imposition of the sanctions on the 251 officials was only a part of the commission's actions in the campaign against corruption, collusion, cronyism and nepotism.

"The sanctioned officials were from a cross-section of ranks and offices. The lightest violation was disobeying office hours while the most serious was collecting illegal levies."

He said that the commission was still working hard on its objective to help the city eradicate corruption and collusion.

"Our focus is on the personnel in the public service affairs offices. It's very important to create clean and trustworthy governance."

"We admit there are officials who still dare to collect levies in the current reform era," he added.

The commission's establishment was officially announced by Sutiyoso on June 12.

Kahfi is assisted by four high-ranking officials. The body's activities are divided into public service, the budget, expenditure, and law and organization.

Kahfi denied allegations that the commission had closed its doors to outside opinions.

"Not only are we open to suggestions from the City Council but also from the public," he said. (cst)