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egal experts are calling for the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) Commission to be granted the power to investigate and punish law-breaking prosecutors.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono recently summoned former attorney general Hendarman Supandji to discuss ways to strengthen the commission to improve the AGO, which is widely perceived as corrupt.

Uli Parulian Sihombing from the Indonesian Legal Resources Center said the commission’s authority had to be extended to making “executable decisions” on prosecutors who violated rules.

“The commission must be given the authority to hand down binding decisions in ethics trials of prosecutor,” Uli said.

The commission’s mandate is currently limited to providing recommendations to the attorney general based on public reports regarding the work of prosecutors.

Asep Rahmat Fajar of the Judiciary Watchdog Coalition said the government should refrain from selecting former prosecutors to head the commission.

“Having a former prosecutor as head would be a handicap to the commission’s integrity because the person would have ties to active prosecutors,” he told The Jakarta Post.

Asep added that the commission should receive direct funding from the government to establish its independence.

“As a consequence, the commission can’t be under the AGO,” he added. “Like the Corruption Eradication Commission, the AGO Commission must stand independently as one of the state’s law enforcement institutions.”

Asep said the President’s delay in appointing new commission members, including the head, would be “forgivable” if the delay was due to doing extensive work to better the commission.

The previous commission’s tenure ended in March after a four-year work period. The selection of the commission’s new members is ongoing.

Asep said efforts to revamp the commission were the subject of “great political interest”. “The commission will play a critical role in upholding the law so everyone is closely watching its progress,” he said, adding that the previous commission did not fulfill public expectations.

The AGO is under public pressure to implement drastic reforms, especially since several prosecutors became implicated in high-profile bribery scandals. In 2008, prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan was charged for accepting US$660,000 in cash to halt a graft investigation.

Two years later, former tax officer Gayus Tambunan testified that he bribed prosecutors, police investigators, judges and attorneys to secure his acquittal in a tax evasion case.

Amir Hasan Ketaren, the commission’s previous chief, said the commission’s main obstacle did not lie in its mandate, but with the prosecutors’ reactions to their recommendations. “The recommendations we submit to the AGO are not well received. They tend to be ignored.”

He added that prosecutors cited a lack of evidence and appropriate witnesses when they received reports of public complaints.

“How can the commission function given this state of affairs?” he said.

Amir added that the appointment of new commission members was running late and that previous commission members had not received a presidential decision regarding the end of their tenures.

“The problem lies in the state’s negligence toward administrative work, which results in much chaos,” he told the Post. (gzl)