A long time ago, a friend of mine showed me his brand new car. He said that the car was bought using the fee of his “side job” as a private tax and customs consultant to some companies. I just smiled and congratulated him, but a big question emerged. I knew that he was only a former auditor in my office.
I learned that “side jobs” were a common job among customs or tax auditors or former auditors or officials who have audit skills. Some do not even hesitate publishing this as a professional activity on their CVs.
This situation happens perhaps due to ignorance or lack of awareness of the related regulation. In fact, it is quite easy to understand that if a customs or tax official has unofficial contacts with taxpayers related to their work, the risk of a conflict of interest will increase and this may result in crimes.
As facts surrounding Gayus Tambunan’s case are presented, we should realize that these practices should no longer be tolerated. As Gayus did, he shared his skill as an official and provided consultation to taxpayers to “resolve” their tax problem.
Gayus also uses his network as a way to contact his colleagues to smoothly clear tax problems.
Learning from this, the Finance Ministry must release a clear regulation to prevent any activities that may potentially lead to a conflict of interest among its officials, and warn all involved officials to stop and report what they have done in such activities. Law enforcement should be applied whenever necessary as a deterrent effect.
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It is very important to examine the track record of any tax official before promoting them to a strategic position.
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In many cases, the bookkeeping of companies that hire such officials typically will, to some extent, be contaminated with some manipulated facts. And similar to a lie, manipulated bookkeeping needs more manipulation to keep the bookkeeping looking “clean”.
Therefore, there should be a policy to help such companies exit from this vicious circle.
This policy should be considered as in many cases these companies have a lot of employees. In addition, their productions also contribute significantly to the national economy.
If these companies collapse due to their tax crime, there might be a risk of instability in our economy. A policy similar to the “sunset policy” perhaps can be a win-win solution to overcome this problem. But still, the law has to be enforced.
A similar conflict of interest can also be found in different forms. Some officials or former officials have families who own, have shares or run business that relate to their jobs as customs or tax officials.
Although we already have a 1980 government regulation addressing this issue, there is no regulation instrument at a ministerial level that can be applied to monitor and control such activates. In addition, concrete and significant sanctions are also needed to discourage these practices.
After all, the biggest challenge to eradicate tax mafia is to omit the ewuh pakewuh (hesitancy) tradition. As Tax Commission chairman Anwar Supriadi said (Kompas, May 18, 2010), ewuh pakewuh is still a problem in tax reform.
Many officials cannot take necessary actions after knowing that their family, friends, superiors, former superiors or even prominent figures are behind the tax crime or other actions against the law. Ewuh pakewuh also often takes place when an official faces a client who holds their “past crime”.
Although there should be “local wisdom” since it is almost impossible to be a 100-percent “clean official” in an institution such as tax or customs, particularly if you have worked there since the era of the New Order.
To eradicate tax mafia, however, it is very important to examine the track record of any tax official before promoting them to a strategic position.
Otherwise, we will only produce officials who act as “toothless tigers” and busily use their position to hide past crimes.
Hopefully this commitment will be of great concern to our new elected leaders in our judiciary institutions who had promised to put tax mafia eradication at the top of the agenda, as well as to the decision makers in the Finance Ministry.
They must promote and become the role models that do not tolerate room for ewuh pakewuh concerning corrupt acts. Without such measures we will never be free from our position as one of the most corrupt nations in Asia.
The writer is a PhD candidate at CTH Gothenburg Sweden, and a senior staff at the Finance Ministry.
