Govt gives public officials one month to report wealth

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.