Legislators yet to submit wealth reports
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
None of some 12,000 newly installed House of Representatives (DPR) and legislature members across the country have submitted their wealth reports to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) although the deadline is near.
House and legislature members are supposed to submit their wealth reports to the commission within 30 days of being sworn in.
Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas, the deputy chairman of KPK, said that none of the new legislators and councillors -- or the old ones who are re-elected-- have submitted their wealth reports.
"We have disseminated information about it and would inform them again. Perhaps, some of them don't know about it as they were just sworn in," he said on Friday.
Most of the legislators of the House of Representatives and councillors of provincial or regental legislatures are new faces.
Erry explained that the law on KPK requires legislators, and other state officials, to submit their wealth reports to the commission to maintain transparency and monitor possible irregularities.
"We will examine the wealth reports and it is very important to publish them because we need the input from people to detect possible irregularities in their wealth reports," he said.
Although the law stipulates the deadline for state officials to submit their wealth reports, it fails to rule about sanctions for them if they are late submitting their reports.
"They would only get administrative and moral sanctions if they are late to submit their wealth reports. They would only be punished by the court if they are proven falsifying their wealth reports," Erry said.
The works of the KPK were previously done by the Civil Servants Wealth Report Audit Commission (KPKPN), which now is defunct following the establishment of KPK.
The KPKPN often found irregularities in the wealth reports of the legislators and councillors and other state officials, usually because they tried to conceal their real assets.
The KPK also called on legislators and legislature members for the 1999-2004 period to submit their wealth reports soon because the deadline was also 30 days after their term ended with the legislative bodies.
As of Thursday, only some 8,000 out of 12,000 legislators of the 1999-2004 period submitted their wealth reports to the KPK.
The 1999-2004 legislators ended their services on Sept. 30.
"We asked former legislators to submit their wealth reports because we need to examine it for material verification," Erry said.
Most legislators who have already submitted their wealth reports are provincial and regencies councillors, he said.
According to Erry, KPK has finished examining about half of the wealth reports of former legislators and councillors. It has published them in the state archives.
In another development, KPK announced that Central Kalimantan Governor Asmawi A. Gani has reported the first gratification case to the commission since the issuance of Law No. 30/2002 on KPK, which requires all public officials to report gratification to the state.
Gratification is any form of gifts given by a person, or a group, or a corporation to public officials. Public officials are required to report to the KPK if they received gratification. KPK would decide whether they were allowed to accept it or not.
"On Sept. 28, the governor informed us that he received Rp 20 million in cash as a birthday present. He brought the money, which is still in its box," Sjahruddin Rasul, also the KPK deputy chairman said.
KPK has yet to decide whether Asmawi could bring the money home or not. Sjahruddin said that the commission would decide this month whether he deserved the money, or the money should be put in the state coffer.
"We called on other officials to report gratification to us," he said, adding that it was mandatory to reduce bribery attempts for state officials.