Sanctions given to AWOL city bureaucrats

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.