AGO selects new graft fighters in regions

Abdul Khalik ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 05/14/2008 10:32 AM  |  National

The Attorney General's Office is selecting replacements for 40 district chief prosecutors dismissed because of poor performance in an anti-corruption drive.

Candidates underwent interviews as part of the selection procedure at the AGO building in Jakarta.

"We hope we can recruit the best candidates to fill the vacant posts," AGO spokesman BD Nainggolan told The Jakarta Post.

Last Friday the AGO announced the dismissals, saying the prosecutors had failed to investigate a minimum of three graft cases per month and charge suspects.

The requirement is part of a new standard introduced by Attorney General Hendarman Supandji to asses the performance of regional chief prosecutors.

As of January this year, there are 365 district prosecutor's offices and 33 provincial prosecutor's offices. Some district prosecutor's offices also oversee newly formed regencies.

Deputy Attorney General Muchtar Arifin said besides failing to prosecute corruption suspects, the dismissed prosecutors were also found to lack leadership, thus adversely affecting the performance of their teams.

The AGO dismissed in August last year the head and deputy head of the Papua Prosecutor's Office and the head of the Jayapura Prosecutor's Office for not seeking heavier sentences for illegal fishing suspects. There has been no formal investigation into the prosecutors despite suspicion of bribery.

Few prosecutors have been implicated in graft cases despite reports of widespread corruption within the law enforcement agency. Corruption watchdogs said the arrest in February of prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan, accused of receiving bribes from a businesswoman linked to a suspect he was investigating, is evidence of corruption in the agency.

The AGO rated poorly in an integrity survey conducted by the Corruption Eradication Commission earlier this year.

Anti-graft activists and experts played down the mass dismissal of prosecutors, saying the AGO relied only on the number of cases tried without considering the value of the cases and the verdicts.

Emerson Juntho of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said the AGO had set a misleading target. He said the move could prompt prosecutors to make up cases and bring them to court without solid evidence.

"According to our data, prosecutors tend to handle small-time cases to achieve the target," he said.

The prosecutor's offices in Luwuk in Central Sulawesi and Sungai Penuh in South Sumatra, investigated 17 and 11 graft cases respectively, topping the AGO's list. But data from ICW suggests most of these cases were insignificant.

Emerson said judges often acquitted graft suspects because of a lack of evidence, which should be blamed on prosecutors.

ICW also found 86 out of 166 graft cases tried in district courts in 2007 ended with the acquittal of the defendants.

Antonius Sujata, chairman of the National Ombudsman Commission, said the AGO's move was useless since certain regions are relatively graft-free.

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