Legislators yet to submit wealth reports
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.