Officials' assets audit staff named

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)