Supreme Court acknowledges office corrupt
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.