Only six ministers have submitted wealth reports

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Only six of the 34 United Indonesia Cabinet members have submitted wealth reports to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) as of Monday afternoon, three days after the deadline set by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The wealth reports of Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Aburizal Bakrie and Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Fahmi Idris reached the anticorruption body on Friday evening. On Monday, Minister of Public Works Djoko Kirmanto and Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin went to the commission office to hand in their wealth reports.

KPK deputy chairman Sjahruddin Rasul said the commission also received on Monday the wealth report of State Minister of Women's Empowerment Meutia Hatta and State Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises Suryadharma Ali.

Cabinet ministers have until Nov. 21 to declare their wealth in accordance with the law, but Susilo, who declared the fight against corruption as one of his top priorities, set an Oct. 29 deadline for the submission of the reports.

Sjahruddin said his office was currently examining the wealth reports of the five ministers.

"We hope we will finish by next week," he said, adding that the commission would publicly announce the amount of assets held by each minister.

The commission will only investigate those reports of state officials that irregularities.

Asked why he failed to meet the president's deadline, Djoko said he found it difficult complete, particularly the item on providing property title.

"It's not an easy job. I must find all the certificates for the properties that I've bought, some of them many years ago, to complete the forms," he told reporters, while refusing to answer questions about his wealth.

Hamid, who went to the KPK office 30 minutes after Djoko, said he encountered similar difficulties.

Unlike Djoko, Hamid had no hesitation about revealing his assets, when asked. He said he had a house in Palem Indah housing complex in East Jakarta and another one in the housing complex for the University of Hasanuddin lecturers in Makassar.

He also said he owned a second-hand Toyota Altis, which he bought from a friend for some Rp 180 million (US$19,780), and a Toyota Kijang van that his wife was driving. He also had US$3,000 in a bank account at Citibank and "less than Rp 100 million" in an account at state bank BNI.

Hamid acknowledged he did not know the exact amount of his wealth as he could not estimate the prices of his home appliances, such as the television and refrigerator.

Also on Monday, the General Elections Commission (KPU) submitted around 12,000 wealth reports belonging to legislators from all over the country, which were given to the KPU before they were declared eligible to run in the April legislative election.

The KPK will not publicly announce the wealth reports of the legislative members, as they are not authorized to do so. The public, however, can get access to the reports from the state document agency.