KPKPN asked to warn councillors

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Governance Watch (JGW) has asked the Public Servants' Wealth Auditing Commission (KPKPN) to promptly issue a stern warning to all provincial councillors, particularly those in Jakarta, for not submitting reports on their wealth and assets to the commission.

JGW's Jakarta chapter chief, Muarif Ambary, said in a written statement released to The Jakarta Post here on Monday, that the KPKPN should issue the warning twice and that the second warning should involve sanctions.

"If after the second warning, they still refuse to submit their wealth reports, then KPKPN can take them to court," he said, adding that their refusal implied they did not support the national campaign to eliminate corruption, collusion and nepotism.

He said that KPKPN had distributed the wealth report forms to the councillors five months ago, but until now, not one of the provincial councillors had submitted their wealth report.

Leaders of The Association of Provincial Councillors had stated that they would only present their reports to KPKPD, a provincial commission for auditing provincial officials' wealth, which has yet to be set up.

Jakarta councillor Agung Imam Soemanto of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) insisted that he would not submit his wealth report until all provincial councils across the country agreed to do so.

"We demand that the KPKPD be established first," Agung of the City Council's Commission B for economic affairs said.

But Muarif said, "Their demand to report to KPKPD was just a ploy to justify not reporting their wealth, which had seemingly been obtained through corrupt practices." He added that the formation of KPKPD would be ineffective and would further burden the national budget. (jun)