KPKPN fails again to keep its words

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN) once again failed to fulfill its own promise on Monday to reveal the names of legislators who had not reported their wealth to the commission by the deadline last Friday.

Deputy chairman of KPKPN in charge of legislators' wealth Abdullah Hehamahua told reporters on Monday that the decision to withhold the names of legislators was taken, "due to the fact that almost half of these remaining 197 legislators have declared their assets to us."

"Had all 197 legislators failed to return their wealth reports by the Friday deadline, we would have announced it to the public. But due to their positive response to our warning, in which just over half of these 197 legislators reported their wealth, we decided not to reveal their names in recognition of their cooperation," Hehamahua said at his office in Central Jakarta on Monday.

However, a KPKPN member requesting anonymity said that as of Monday only two of 197 legislators had reported their assets, and one of them was Haryanto Taslam of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

He said the decision was made during the commission's plenary meeting last week.

As reported earlier, some 197 of 500 legislators failed to declare their assets to KPKPN.

To pressure the legislators, KPKPN held a plenary meeting discussing several issues, including the establishment of the mechanism for publishing the names of legislators who did not declare their assets.

Fahmi Idris of the Golkar Party, Zulfan Lindan of PDI Perjuangan and all the chairmen of House of Representatives commissions are reportedly on the list of noncompliant legislators.

It is also reported that KPKPN believes that five of the 126 legislators from the House and the People's Consultative Assembly, whose wealth declarations have been checked by the commission, are believed to have obtained at least some of their wealth through corruption, collusion, or nepotism.

Hehamahua earlier revealed that they had planned to ask for some revisions to Law No. 28/1999 on clean government because it did not grant KPKPN the power to impose stern sanctions on legislators who refused to report their assets.