NGOs urge government to dissolve KPKPN
NGOs urge government to dissolve KPKPN
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A number of non-governmental organizations suggested on
Wednesday that the government dissolve the Public Servants'
Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN) for failing to live up to the
public's expectations in the fight against corruption.
The NGOs deemed that the commission, after one whole year of
work, remained a toothless tiger with no outstanding achievements
in unraveling how public servants came by their wealth. They said
the commission had gone no farther than gathering data due to its
lack of powers to verify reports of ill-gotten wealth.
In separate interviews, Wasingatu Zakiah of Indonesian
Corruption Watch (ICW), Muhammad A. Asrun of Judicial Watch and
Nizar Suhendra of the Indonesian Society for Transparency (MTI)
said that changes should be made to the methods employed in the
country's anticorruption methods.
They said the commission's failure to work in a professional
manners was only to be expected as 34 of the commission members
were politicians.
"It was clear for all to see that the political parties fought
tooth and nail to win as many seats on the commission as possible
so they could confer impunity on party colleagues who are public
servants," Zakiah told The Jakarta Post.
Nizar also expressed doubt that the KPKPN could work well
since "the members are only interested in salary increases rather
then proving their abilities.
On Tuesday, State Minister for Administrative Reforms Feisal
Tamin revealed to the House of Representatives that as of Jan.
24, less than 27 percent of the 40,506 public servants registered
had returned their wealth declarations to the KPKPN.
The KPKPN's chairman, Yusuf Syakir of the United Development
Party (PPP), has repeatedly said that the commission would audit
a total of 51,500 wealth declarations by top-level public
servants and verify them before announcing the results in the
official gazette.
However, Zakiah said, the KPKPN had put the cart before the
horse with the reports having been made public even though no
verification process had been conducted.
Asrun added that the results of their field checks in several
provinces showed that not all high-ranking judges and prosecutors
have received the wealth declaration forms, although the KPKPN
claimed to have distributed them last November.
Nizar went further and suggested that the KPKPN be dissolved
and its auditing functions be given to the proposed
anticorruption commission. The bill setting up the commission has
now been passed to the House for deliberation.