T

he House of Representatives might reject a number of Financial Service Authority (OJK) commissioner candidates if they are found to have questionable track records.

“If all of them fit with the needed criteria, then we can conduct a fit and proper test for OJK commissioner posts, but if only a few of them or even all of them do not fulfill our requirements, then we might reject their candidacy and ask President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the selection committee to propose other names,” House Commission XI on finance, national development planning, banking and non-bank financial institutions deputy chairman Harry Azhar Azis from the Golkar Party told The Jakarta Post by phone on Tuesday.

Harry added that the House might also propose that the President replace members of the selection committee, currently headed by Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo.

“If we find that the selection committee plays a major part in passing through questionable candidates, then we might propose for its members to be replaced and for another selection round for the OJK commissioner posts,” Harry said.

The OJK is set to become a financial service monitoring superbody. The institution will take all financial monitoring authority from Bank Indonesia and the Capital Market and Financial Services Supervisory Agency (Bapepam-LK).

As many as 14 candidates have progressed through several phases of the OJK selection process and are now about to enter the final phase, in which they will compete for seven commissioner posts. Each post will be competed for by two candidates.

The OJK actually has nine commissioner posts, but the other two automatically belong to representatives from Bank Indonesia and the Finance Ministry.

According to the OJK Law, the House has 45 days to conduct a fit and proper test on the candidates after their names have been submitted by the President, but in practice legislators will have less than 30 days to complete the test because they will recess from April 13 to May 13.

The commissioners will hold a massive authority in their hands because the OJK will not only be responsible for monitoring financial industries but also for issuing and annulling regulations. Watchdogs and experts have been hoping for people with high integrity to fill the commissioner posts.

However, criticism has been directed to the current candidates for future potential conflicts of interests.

The Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef), an economic think tank organization, said on Tuesday that the credibility and capability of some of the candidates were doubtful.

“The main reason why the OJK exists in the first place is because of a lack of credibility of BI and Bapepam LK in terms of executing their respective authorities,” INDEF executive director Enny Sri Hartati said during a press conference on Tuesday.

“But most candidates come from those two institutions, so this is an anomaly.”

She cited the ongoing case of Bakrie Life, which saw 250 of its client demanding Rp 360 billion (US$39.2 million) of their investment money from its insurance-based product, Diamond Investa.

The knowledge and commitment of some of the candidates were also questioned by the think tank, which stressed that any commissioner must fully understand the importance of pushing forward the real sector of the economy.

“We see from the candidates’ track records that none of them are committed to the development of the real sector,” she said.

Nevertheless, Indef hopes that the OJK will rise to the challenge.

“The stakes are too high for the OJK to not succeed,” Enny said, citing the fact that the total assets of the financial sectors in Indonesia was Rp 7,000 trillion, with 80 percent of that figure attributed to the banking industry. (han)