The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Commission III of the House of Representatives overseeing legal and legislative affairs will summon the Supreme Court to discuss its refusal to be audited by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), a legislator said Sunday.
""Even though the two have already made peace in front of the President, we in the commission still want to know the Supreme Court justices' reasons for their refusal,"" Commission III deputy chairman Aziz Syamsudin told detik.com newsportal.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono held a meeting on Saturday before leaving for the U.S to attend the United Nations General Assembly.
Saturday's meeting was aimed at settling the conflict between the two state institutions. Constitutional Court president Jimly Assidiqqie and several ministers also were also present.
The meeting resulted in the Supreme Court agreeing to be audited by the agency but Chief Justice Bagir Manan said they wanted to prepare an implementing regulation before the agency audited them.
Aziz said the House supported the Supreme Court in preparing an implementing regulation concerning court administrative fees that must be paid at every legal step from the District Courts to the Supreme Court, saying that every state institution must work hard in order to achieve transparency in their fund management.
Supreme Court decree No. 3/2002 stipulates that an individual appeal in a civil case requires an administrative fee of Rp 500,000 (US$54) while Supreme Court decree No.8/2002 stipulates that a civil case review requires an administrative fee of Rp 2.5 million.
However, legislator Gayus Lumbuun of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle said the implementing regulation would not solve the real problem.
""The real problem is because the two institutions are obeying two different laws. So the government must first decide on the law used in this matter through a judicial review and not rush the Supreme Court to make an implementing regulation because it could create further confusion in the future,"" he was quoted as saying by detik.com.
Currently the Supreme Court complies with the Civil Code Procedures in regulating court administrative fees. The code rules that court administrative fees are excluded from state revenue.
Meanwhile the Supreme Audit Agency conforms to the 2004 Public Finance Management Law, which stipulates that all funds paid by the public for services they receive from the state are state revenue. This also includes administrative fees.
The head of the Corruption and Politics Division of the Indonesian Corruption Watch, Fahmi Badoh, said the BPK must be cautious of the Supreme Court's plan to make an implementing regulation before the agency can start to edit them.
""It is obvious that the Supreme Court is trying hard to avoid the Agency direct audit. The agency and other state institutions must suspect the Supreme Court's moves and criticize the process as it could be potentially used to make some important evidence of the fund misuse allegations disappear,"" he told the news portal. (10)
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