House to select BPK, BI officials

House to select BPK, BI officials

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta

The House of Representatives finance commission, most of whose
members are unlikely to be reelected, appears in no rush to
complete its long list of outstanding tasks in the remaining two
sessions of the current House.

The commission will instead focus more on the selection of a
new chairman and members of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) and a
senior deputy governor of Bank Indonesia, legislators said on
Tuesday.

"With so much to do and so little time to do it in, priority,
I think, will be given to those issues that are most urgent.

"The selection of the BPK members and a BI senior deputy
governor fits this criteria," Paskah Suzetta, deputy chairman of
the commission, said, adding that the commission would be more
flexible about other issues.

While agreeing that many of the current members had little
chance of getting reelected, "that does not mean that we will be
in a rush to complete everything that is currently waiting in the
pipeline," Paskah said.

Many of the current members of the House will no longer
feature in the new House to be formed in October based on the
results of the April 5 legislative election.

The current session will end in the middle of July, while the
last session will open in the middle of August. With only two
sessions left, the current members of the commission are now
facing an uphill task to wrap up at least five major issues that
are already in the pipeline.

Aside from the BPK and BI appointments, also high on the
agenda are the sales of majority stakes in Bank Permata and Bank
Negara Indonesia (BNI), and the privatization of other state-
owned firms including Merpati Nusantara Airlines.

There are fears that the outgoing legislators will use the
amount of outstanding business as an excuse for seeking bribes
from state officials.

However, Paskah said that any decisions taken by the
commission would be based on its significance, and nothing else.

"If we find that the policies are of less significance, then
why bother?. If necessary, we won't mind passing them on to the
incoming lawmakers," he said.

Another senior legislator, Max Moein, agreed that the
priorities for the current session would be the selection of the
BPK members and chairman, as well as a senior deputy governor of
BI to replace Anwar Nasution.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri has proposed three candidates
for the BI post -- Miranda Goeltom (a former deputy governor of
Bank Indonesia), Budi Rochadi (the head of Bank Indonesia's
office in Tokyo), and Hartadi A. Sarwono (currently a deputy
governor).

Max said that the selection process was expected to be
finalized by the end of the month.

As for the BPK, the commission is scheduled to hold selection
hearings to pick 21 out of a total of 61 candidates between May
17 and May 19, he added. The names will then be submitted to the
President, who will choose seven of them.