KPKPN fails again to keep its words

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.