Anticorruption activists and economists are looking askance at the candidates taking part in the House of Representatives' selection process of leadership posts for the State Audit Agency (BPK).
Deputy coordinator of Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), Adnan Topan Husodo, also questioned the transparency of the selection process, citing "information" that legislators had already chosen the required seven candidates even though the selection of 50 candidates is still officially underway.
"Therefore, I am not surprised at the abysmal situation of the current selection process. The whole process is just a formality," he added.
A fresh graduate and a corruption suspect were included on the list of 50 candidates in the selection process that began Monday and ends this Friday.
Deputy chairman of the House's Commission XI on Finance, Walman Siahaan, from the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) caucus, said that having incompetent candidates was inevitable because the minimum requirements stipulated by the law on the BPK were too low.
Article 13 of the law stipulates that anyone who has at least a bachelor's degree can participate in the selection process.
The law does not elaborate on the minimum accounting, financial audit and technical requirements that a candidate should have, even though article No. 6 says the job of BPK members is to audit the financial management of state institutions.
Adnan, however, said that House legislators could not blame the law.
"The commission members could at least have the decency to conduct a much tighter selection process for applicants," he said.
Economist Ichsanudin Noorsy said that should the House's selection policy continue, then it would further undermine the BPK's authority and public trust.
A member of the commission, Hari Azhar Azis from the Golkar Party caucus, said he acknowledged the need to have a stricter selection process before the fit and proper test.
"So far, a candidate only needs to meet the administrative requirements stipulated by the law. We also need to investigate the competency of each candidate with interviews before the fit and proper test," he said.
"The problem is that we do not yet have standardized regulations concerning the pre-fit and proper test interviews. This is not only a problem in the BPK leadership post selection process, but also in the selection process of other state institutions, such as the General Elections Commission *KPU*," he added.
Hari, however, rejected Adnan's remarks that the names for the posts had been predetermined.
Besides incompetent candidates, the selection process is also deemed flawed by anticorruption groups because some candidates have allegedly been involved in graft cases.
For example, Endin Soefihara from the United Development Party (PPP), has been named by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) as one of four suspects in a bribery case centered on the 2004 election of Miranda Goeltom as the senior deputy governor of Bank Indonesia. However, Hari said that Endin had withdrawn his candidacy without a clear explanation. (hdt)
