Govt gives public officials one month to report wealth

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has given all public officials in the bureaucracy until the end of this month to report their assets or face punishment.

State Minister of Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin said on Monday he had sent letters to all officials, from national to regional level, to comply with the mandatory procedure stipulated by the Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN).

"One month is long enough for the public officials to report their assets. If they refuse to do so, they will certainly face sanctions," he told a media conference after a seminar on corruption eradication.

He said that, based on the Criminal Code (KUHP), the government would sue officials who refused to report their wealth.

Article 216 of KUHP stipulates that those who disobey orders from officials face the possibility of jail sentences of a maximum of ten weeks or a fine of Rp 9,000 (US$ 1).

Administrative sanctions for disobedient career civil servants include demotion, postponement of their promotion or dismissal, based on Government Regulation No 30/1980 on disciplinary action for civil servants, he said.

"In the current circumstances, although the failure to report their wealth might be categorized as a minor offense, they could face the maximum penalty. This punishment could effectively kill their career," Feisal said.

The wealth report is mandatory for all state officials, including legislators, governors, regents, mayors, military and police officers and judges.

Also speaking in the forum, KPKPN chief Jusuf Syakir said some 27,000 public officials had not yet reported their wealth.

"Legislators ... and police are prominent among those reluctant to clarify their assets," he said.

According to him, the commission was seeking a legal basis other than Article 216 of KUHP to impose stiffer penalties on those who refused to report their wealth.

The government established KPKPN last year as part of the national drive against corruption. Its duty is to show how public servants have come by their wealth.

Corruption is still widespread in the country although its eradication has become the main agenda of the reform movement, which triggered the fall of the authoritarian regime of former president Soeharto in 1998.

KPKPN will have to examine the wealth forms of a total of 51,500 public officials.

Recently KPKPN announced the names of 155 House of Representatives and People's Consultative Assembly legislators who had failed to submit a report.

Feisal said last week other defiant officials included the governors of Banten, Papua, Aceh and Gorontalo. The latter two have now reported their assets.

The minister encouraged KPKPN on Monday to let the general public monitor its activities through the mass media.

He also asked the public to wait patiently for the results of corruption eradication, which could not be achieved overnight.