Planned reshuffle at AGO will affect senior officials
Planned reshuffle at AGO will affect senior officials
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government plans to reshuffle senior officials at the
Attorney General's Office (AGO) in the near future after growing
public complaints about its poor performance, particularly in
prosecuting high-profile corruption cases.
"This will be done very soon," Attorney General Abdul Rachman
Saleh told The Jakarta Post after a Cabinet meeting last week.
He acknowledged the growing complaints about the performance
of his office but appealed to the public to be patient. It would
take time to reform the institution, which for years had been
plagued with corruption and bribery, he said.
"It (the reshuffle) will be done soon as the TPA has almost
completed its examination," Abdul Rachman said, referring to the
President's high-powered team that holds the authority to appoint
Echelon 1 officials in state institutions.
The TPA consists of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Vice
President Jusuf Kalla, National Intelligence Body (BIN) head
Syamsir Siregar and other Cabinet members.
Deputy Attorney General for Monitoring Ahmad Lopa, Deputy
Attorney General for Intelligence Basrief Arief, Deputy Attorney
General for Civil and State Administrative Affairs Harprilleny
and Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes Sudhono Iswahyudhi
are Echelon 1 officials at the AGO.
The reshuffle at the AGO is part of the government's planned
reshuffle in all state institutions and ministries to help boost
the performance of the country's bureaucracy.
Asep Rahmat Fajar, an expert advisor to the Attorney General,
said a reshuffle at the AGO would be crucial to securing public
support in prosecuting high-profile corruption cases and other
crimes.
"It is inevitable. Despite organizational restructuring, the
Attorney General must also reform its human resources because
there must be the same desire within the office to improve
performance," he told the Post.
The reshuffle, Asep said, must be initiated from the highest
level -- the Echelon 1 -- to the lowest level. He suggested that
the reshuffle be based on an assessment mechanism for all
officials.
"Integrity is the first requirement," he said.
The public generally welcomed the decision to appoint Abdul
Rahman as the Attorney General last year.
Abdul Rahman, a former Supreme Court justice, who is known for
his plain life and not for receiving bribes, replaced M.A.
Rachman.
The latter had been reported to the police by the Civil
Servants Wealth Audit Commission for allegedly not being honest
in declaring his wealth.
In the first 100 days of the new government, however, there
were few significant achievements made by the AGO, particularly
regarding Susilo's much-vaunted anticorruption drive.
Critics have said the poor performance was due to Abdul
Rachman's reluctance to launch a reshuffle of the office's senior
officials.
Abdul Rachman had kept the previous Deputy Attorney Generals
in their respective positions, which critics said was like
"trying to clean a dirty floor with a dirty broom".