Sanctions given to AWOL city bureaucrats

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration announced over the weekend the punishments for several hundred civil servants who failed to return to work in the first two days after the long Idul Fitri holiday in November, with the penalties ranging from demotion to verbal reprimands.

The assistant to the city secretary for administrative affairs, Moerdiman Reksomarnoto, said Saturday eight civil servants would be demoted for unexcused absences following the long holiday and 62 would have all raises and promotions suspended for a year.

Moerdiman said another 26 civil servants would receive written reprimands and 253 would be reprimanded verbally.

"These sanctions will be delivered to the civil servants this week by the heads of the relevant agencies and departments," he said.

The stiffest sanction of demotion was reserved for high- ranking civil servants.

"Most of those being demoted are high-ranking officials who chair working units in city agencies. Like it or not, they will be demoted a rank," Moerdiman said.

The demoted civil servants come from the Jakarta Building Construction and Supervision Agency (three people), the Jakarta Public Order Agency, the Jakarta Assets Bureau, the Jakarta Public Relations Bureau, the Jakarta Finance Bureau and the Jakarta National Unity Body.

Moerdiman said Governor Sutiyoso, who returned to Jakarta on Saturday from a trip to South Africa, was expected to sign the sanction letters on Monday.

Earlier, Sutiyoso said any civil servants who were absent without leave after the holiday would be sanctioned because they failed to set a "good example" for the public.

"I will not tolerate unexcused absences because they enjoyed a full week of holidays. I will only tolerate absences from those who were sick," Sutiyoso said.

Sutiyoso made several unannounced visits to city agencies on the first day of work after Idul Fitri to see for himself how many civil servants failed to come into the office.

Jakarta Audit Agency head Firman Hutajulu announced last month at least 557 civil servants were absent without official leave in the first two days after Idul Fitri. He estimated that 30 percent of these civil servants would receive some form of official sanction.

There are more than 29,000 civil servants in the Jakarta administration, not including teachers at state schools and contract workers at city agencies.

Last year, the City Audit Agency announced 874 civil servants failed to come into work in the first two days after Idul Fitri. There were, however, no reports on whether the civil servants were sanctioned.