Govt to repossess ex-KPU assets

JAKARTA: Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno threatened on Tuesday to forcibly withdraw 80 official cars and motorcycles as well as other assets still being used by former members of the General Elections Commission (KPU).

"If they insist on refusing to return the assets ... we will ask the legal authorities to help withdraw them," he told journalists in Jakarta.

Hari said the government had a list of names of former KPU members holding the assets, which includes 6,000 typewriters and fax machines.

The minister promised to take serious action against unscrupulous former members of the KPU in order to recover the commission's assets accorded to them before the 1999 elections.

It is forbidden under a presidential decree to convert the ownership of state assets into private assets without official consent from relevant authorities, he said.

Earlier, the KPU demanded that its vehicles and other assets be returned to assist its operational activities ahead of and during the 2004 elections. --Antara