Legislator Urges Ombudsman to Increase Oversight of Priority Programmes

Jakarta - Member of Commission II of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Muhammad Khozin, stated that the Ombudsman of the Republic of Indonesia must increase its attention to overseeing the government’s priority programmes. The statement was made by Khozin in response to the results of the Ombudsman Ethics Council hearing, which revealed that former Chairman of the Indonesian Ombudsman Hery Susanto had directed his staff not to ‘touch’ the Free Nutritious Meal programme. ‘The thinking paradigm should be to increase attention on every super-priority programme. Do not, just because it is a priority programme, say don’t touch it,’ Khozin said during a working meeting with the Ombudsman at the Parliament Complex in Jakarta on Wednesday. According to him, the directive not to touch a certain priority programme was a flawed paradigm. As an independent state institution, the Ombudsman should oversee all government agencies that use the state budget. He also warned that such an incident must not be repeated. ‘Let yesterday’s incident be the first and the last. There must not be a second or third. This is our hope and our warning to the Ombudsman,’ he said. As a legislator overseeing domestic governance affairs, Khozin is paying close attention to this issue, especially since the Ombudsman leadership is the result of a fit and proper test conducted by Commission II of the House. ‘Honestly, institutionally we are embarrassed. Only days into the role, a calamity like this occurred. Please take it as a lesson. When we heard what the Chair of the Ethics Council conveyed earlier, we were even more shocked,’ he said. According to him, the Ombudsman actually plays an important role in preventing legal violations in the implementation of government priority programmes. ‘Do not let this become a smouldering fire, a time bomb,’ he said. Previously, the Indonesian Ombudsman Ethics Council revealed that Hery Susanto, a suspect in an alleged corruption case involving nickel mining business governance, had directed his staff not to ‘touch’ the Free Nutritious Meal programme. Chairman of the Ombudsman Ethics Council Jimly Asshiddiqie regretted the directive because, even though the programme is a crucial national programme, the Ombudsman must still oversee it. ‘This is outrageous. The proof is now the head of the programme has been arrested as a suspect, which means there is a problem in the governance,’ Jimly said during a press conference in Jakarta on Monday. Jimly explained that Hery’s directive was revealed by several Ombudsman staff members to the council during the examination. As a result of the examination, the council dishonourably dismissed Hery from his position as Chairman of the Ombudsman for the 2026–2031 term. He stressed that going forward, the Ombudsman must not relinquish oversight just because a programme is a government flagship. The Ombudsman must continue to oversee all government programmes, with no exception for national priority programmes.