House told to drop ‘corrupt’ BPK candidates
Irawaty Wardany, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 06/16/2009 3:56 PM
A coalition of corruption watchdogs demanded Tuesday the House of
Representatives disqualify candidates for the Supreme Audit Agency
(BPK) who have been previously implicated in graft cases.
“We have found the track record of about 40 percent of the 51 BPK candidates is dubious,” said Roy Salam of the Indonesia Budget Center (IBC). Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), the Indonesian Centre for Law and Policy Studies (PSHK) and the Transparency International Indonesia (TII) are also members of the coalition.
Roy identified two of the candidates as Endin A.J Soefihara, deputy chairman of the House’s Commission XI overseeing financial and banking issues, and Udju Djuhaeri, an incumbent BPK member. The two have been declared suspects in a bribery case related to the election of the Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor in 2004.
“Their candidacy should be annulled because of their status,” Roy said.
Roy said clean track records and strong integrity was a must for BPK members, who would be responsible for the supervision of state finances.
The House is selecting replacements for seven BPK members who will retire on Oct. 19.
