Supreme Court acknowledges office corrupt

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Public allegations of rampant bribery in the judiciary are apparently not just empty rhetoric as a top official of the Supreme Court revealed on Wednesday the practice was frequent among judges who were pursuing coveted positions.

So eager are the judges to secure structural posts in courts nationwide that they easily fall prey to cheaters, Supreme Court Secretary-General Gunanto Suryono said.

"This usually happens every time the Supreme Court plans a tour of duty and nowadays the (bribery) practice has become more frequent," Gunanto said.

Gunanto said he had received complaints from a number of judges who lost between Rp 10 million (US$1,176) and Rp 100 million to impostors, who usually pretended to be Chief Justice Bagir Manan or other high-ranking Supreme Court officials.

The impostor officials always ask for money from the judges, who are looking for better positions or promotion, by telephone, Gunanto said.

"They ask the judges to transfer money to their bank accounts, and later on the ambitious judges find out they have been cheated," Gunanto said.

He said the Supreme Court had reported the cases to the police. However, the police faced difficulties in tracing the impostors as they usually closed their accounts soon after the judges transferred the money. Worse, the impostors used fake ID cards to open the bank accounts, he added.

"Once one of my staff members managed to talk to the impostor who was pretending to be him. But when he asked the man to stop his act, he replied that cheating was his job," said Gunanto.

Gunanto claimed to be among those Supreme Court officials whose names were being used by the criminals.

He believed that the impostors had links with insiders.

"It is very possible because they obtain information about the tour of duty so quickly," he said.

Bribery has been rampant in courts across the country. A report from the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) last year revealed that corruption in the judiciary involved people of all levels, ranging from the court's parking attendants to judges.

ICW says corrupt practices in the judiciary start with the recruitment of judges.

Gunanto said some judges were wary enough to cross-check the phone calls with the related Supreme Court officials.

Speaking during the inauguration of nine new high court chiefs at the Supreme Court building on Wednesday, Bagir said he was aware of the cases, but asserted that no Supreme Court high ranking officials had ever demanded bribes from judges.

"I assure you that we have never asked judges or others for money," he said.

According to Bagir, the state had fulfilled his and other officials needs.

"My salary is, God willing, quite enough to support my family and meet my needs," he remarked.

Bagir said the Supreme Court had always appointed a person due to his or her merit.