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.