Governor vows to punish city's guilty officers

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Surjadi Soedirdja promised yesterday to severely punish the head of the West Jakarta Public Order Office if he was found guilty of selling iron bars he seized in one of his operations.

"If he is proven guilty, he should be punished because he has stained the image of city officials in the eyes of the public," Surjadi told reporters at City Hall yesterday.

"We won't protect any of our officials who do such a thing," he said.

Selling confiscated items is a serious violation, said the outgoing governor.

"It's the city public order officials who should be good examples of people upholding regulations," he stressed.

Media reports said yesterday that the suspected official, Karsidin, was reported to the City Police Tuesday by the iron bar trader, Amin Arifin, a resident of Jl. Tenis Raya, Cengkareng, in West Jakarta.

In his report, Amin stated that Karsidin and his staff had seized all his belongings, including 38 trucks of iron bars, while demolishing his house as ordered by the West Jakarta mayor.

At the time, Amin believed he could claim back his goods from the public order officials.

He, however, failed to recover his belongings and the officials gave no proper answers as to the whereabouts of his merchandise.

Amin then reported the situation to the police, asking the officers to probe the case.

City Police spokesman Lt. Col. Edward Aritonang said the police would investigate the report.

Governor Surjadi has repeatedly called on city officials not to abuse their power and to improve public services.

He has expressed concern at reports that some officials have extorted money from people and others have accepted bribes to turn green areas into commercial sites.

Councilor Hotma Tambunan of the Armed Forces (ABRI) faction said that a proper punishment should be imposed on Karsidin if he was found guilty of selling the confiscated goods for his own ends.

Hotma said that whoever took or sold things which were not their own had a status similar to that of a thief.

"For officials, who violate their duties in protecting and serving the public, the punishment should be even more severe," said Hotma yesterday.

The council's deputy speaker, Ade Surapriatna, said that the action had completely undermined the city's public order office.

"Only one of them allegedly made a mistake but it affected the entire office so they will now be labeled as bad officers," Ade said.

He said that it didn't make any sense that the official could be allowed to sell the confiscated items.

He urged the police to process the case immediately.

"There's no need to cover anything up, the guilty one must be punished according to the existing laws," said Ade from the ruling Golkar faction. (ste/07)