Legislators said Monday the decision on whether Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) staff could become agency heads would likely cause a heated debate.
The decision will be made at a House of Representative's plenary session Tuesday, but legislators remain divided over whether two serving BPK officials may be recommended as agency leaders.
The two candidates are BPK secretary-general Dharma Bakti and the head of the BPK's West Java office, Gunawan Sidauruk.
"I think it'd be better to cancel their recommendations, because the House doesn't want to chose candidates in violation of the law," said House Speaker Agung Laksono.
The debate over the two candidates resulted from differing interpretations of the 2006 BPK Law.
The law stipulates that a candidate from a financial managing institution must have left their position for at least two years before their candidacy.
"The House has asked the Supreme Court to clarify whether the two candidates fulfill this requirement," said Maruar Sirait, from the House's Commission XI, overseeing banking and financial affairs.
"Unfortunately, though, the court couldn't give a clear answer."
The court ruling, handed down Thursday, neither accepted nor rejected the candidates' suitability, only saying that candidates should fulfill the two-year requirement.
The ruling pointed out neither candidate would cause a conflict of interest if they became candidates, because the BPK was audited by an independent accountant.
The ruling left it up to the House to recommend or disqualify them.
"The court's ruling is confusing," Maruar said.
"We just needed a simple yes or no, but the court threw it back to us.
"The interpretation of the law should be a legal decision, but now it's become a political one. I don't like the indecisiveness of the ruling, because now the eligibility of the BPK recruitment process will again be questioned."
He added the lack of direction from the ruling would lead legislators into yet more heated debates.
"We asked for a legal interpretation, but the Supreme Court gave us a wishy-washy answer," he said.
Fellow Commission XI member Harry Azhar Azis agreed.
"The only clear thing about this law is that people from government institutions shouldn't be chosen because it just leads to a conflict of interests," he said.
He added if the candidates were disqualified due to their serving in a financial institution, the same rule could also apply to House members in the BPK recruitment process, because "the House decides on and supervises financial matters".
Rizal Djalil, whose candidacy for BPK leader was approved by the House, is an active Commission XI member. Harry said the two candidates who could replace Dharma and Gunawan were also legislators: T.M. Nurlif from the Golkar party, and Ali Masykur Musa from the National Awakening Party (PAN).
Harry added any decision would set a precedent for the future of the BPK recruitment process.
"The current BPK leader, Hasan Basri, was actually also a serving BPK official when he was chosen," he said.
"Now we're deciding just how legit that process is." (mrs)
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