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".