Soeharto to rule on officials' private wealth

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto will soon issue a decree as the legal foundation requiring ministers and other high-ranking officials to declare their wealth, a minister said yesterday.

Coordinating Minister of Development Supervision and State Administrative Reforms Hartarto Sastrosoenarto said the decree would rule that ministers and provincial governors were obliged to report their wealth directly to the President.

Upper-echelon ministry officials -- including secretaries- general and directors general -- will be required to report to Hartarto. Provincial officials must report their assets to the governors.

"We are still working on (the decree), and will announce the results soon," Hartarto said after meeting with Vice President B.J. Habibie at Merdeka Selatan Palace.

At the new cabinet's first meeting last week, the President ordered his 36-strong cabinet to disclose their wealth along with their spouses' in a bid to bolster public confidence in the government.

However, the reports would not be made public, Soeharto said.

Also yesterday, Hartarto said President Soeharto assigned him to supervise the development process. In his previous two terms, Soeharto gave the assignment to vice presidents Sudharmono and Try Sutrisno.

Unlike the two previous vice presidents -- who were specially assigned to supervise development and other ceremonial events, Vice President B.J. Habibie has been given the more challenging tasks of assisting the President in international fora and to coordinate industrial sectors.

The Vice President visited Japan only one week after his installment this month.

He is also scheduled to visit Malaysia and Italy next week before attending the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in London early next month.

"Today, Pak Habibie handed over his task to supervise development to me," Hartarto said.

Merdeka Selatan Palace has a special postal box, Tromol Pos 5000, to receive complaints from the public, especially on power abuses, corruption and poor public services. Hartarto said the box has been moved to his office at the Ministry of Manpower on Jl. Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta.

"As the postal box plays a strategic role to strengthen supervision functions... I do appreciate information from people," Hartarto noted.

The President also assigned Hartarto to be in charge of the affairs of more than four million civil servants, a task previously handled by a state minister.

Hartarto also said that his office was finalizing the specific missions of each ministry in order to avoid any overlapping of authority, such as the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture and Ministry of Education and Culture.

"We are also working on streamlining our organizations to enable us to work efficiently," said Hartarto, but quickly added that there was no plan to reduce the size of the civil service. (prb)