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ven after the expiration of the two-year tenure of the Judicial Mafia Task Force, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has yet to give the final say-so on whether to extend its term.

“I think the President is busy,” task force member Mas Achmad Santosa said on Thursday when asked if the President had decided on extending the task force’s tenure.

Darmono, another member of the task force, who is also the deputy attorney general, said an official recommendation on the organization’s tenure extension had been tendered to the President last week.

“Maybe the President hasn’t had the time to read it,” he said.

Darmono said members of the task force would cease performing their duties until Yudhoyono issued a decree to extend their service.

President Yudhoyono established the task force on Dec. 30, 2009.

Presidential aide Kuntoro Mangkusubroto was appointed head of the task force, which was tasked with addressing rampant mafia practices in the country’s judicial system.

Other task force members are Deputy Law and Human Rights Minister Denny Indrayana, Insp. Gen. Herman Effendi from the National Police, and former Financial Transaction Report and Analysis Center chairman Yunus Husein.

Within days of its establishment, the task force made an impromptu visit to the Pondok Bambu penitentiary in East Jakarta, which had been widely exposed in the media, to corroborate reports that businesswoman and bribery convict Artalyta Suryani was enjoying luxurious facilities behind bars.

The task force also played an important role in bringing home graft suspect Gayus Tambunan from his hideout in Singapore.

Lawmakers have called on the President not to extend the task force’s tenure. “It has made little impact on improving the country’s damaged legal system. I don’t see a significant performance when it comes to the job of curbing mafia practices. What they did was merely prison inspections,” said Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) lawmaker Nasir Djamil.

Ota acknowledged that the task force partly suffered from its limited power and authority. “We don’t have the ability to prosecute. But we’ve done a great deal, including relaying information to the authorities over alleged mafia practices reported by the public,” he said.

“Initiating such efforts is not an easy job, given the fact that members of the mafia network decided to fight back and they are supported by politicians, who would probably argue that we didn’t do anything,” Ota added.

Data from the task force stated that it received almost 5,000 reports on alleged mafia practices involving the country’s judicial officials since its establishment. But due to logistical constraints, 89 percent of the reports were left unresolved.