Officials' assets audit staff named

JAKARTA (JP): The House of Representatives approved on Thursday the candidates for the 45-member Audit Commission on Officials' Assets for ratification by the President.

But both the procedure in which the decision was taken and the integrity and competence of several of the endorsed candidates were immediately questioned by House members and analysts.

Several legislators questioned the validity of the plenary session, which made the decision, due to the small number of legislators attending.

Only 58 of the House members attended the entire session, even though 335 legislators initially attended the meeting and signed the attendance registration book.

However, House Deputy Speaker Tosari Wijaya, who chaired the plenary session, declared the decision valid, arguing that more than half of the House members attended when the meeting was opened.

"According to the House's internal regulations, the decision could be considered valid," Tosari asserted in reply to an interruption by legislator Ignatius Mulyono, who questioned the validity of the decision.

However several other legislators urged Tosari to continue the session, saying that it was legal according to the regulations.

Legislator Suratal of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), said that many House members had to leave the session midway to attend other important hearings.

The integrity and competence of several names in the list of candidates, including "demonstration leader" Eggi Sudjana and chairman of the Indonesian Journalists' Association (PWI) Tarman Azzam, were questioned.

At least 20 journalists signed "a protest letter", urging the House not to include Tarman, who is a Golkar Party activist, in the commission.

Ferry, who is chairman of the House's Commission II special working committee, admitted that several groups have presented their objections over the names but he insisted that all the candidates had been subjected to a thorough fit-and-proper test.

He said the commission, which will be set up as part of a program to develop good governance, should submit quarterly reports on its work to the House and the President.

Among the 45 names are former chairwoman of the Indonesian Consumer Foundation Institute (YLKI) Zumrotin K. Susilo and economic columnist Winarno Zain. Former chief prosecutor of the investigation against former president Soeharto, Chairul Imam, and former South Kalimantan Prosecutor's Office chief Gaguk Subagyanto are also among the names.

Both the 1999 Law on Clean and Good Governance and the government letter of intent to the International Monetary Fund call for the establishment of an independent commission to audit state officials' assets.

The Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) rejected all the 45 candidates, saying their composition was designed simply to satisfy the major factions within the House.

"We reject the composition of the commission as its members will immediately face a conflict of interests," ICW's coordinator Teten Masduki said in a statement on Thursday.

Teten doubted the quality and accuracy of the fit-and-proper test conducted to screen the 205 candidates of the commission, arguing that some of the 45 final candidates were known publicly as having bad track records.

He saw the hasty approval of the candidates simply as an effort to meet the deadline set in the government's letter of intent to the IMF. (jun)