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dministrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Yuddy Chrisnandi embarked on a campaign last week to strengthen the enforcement of the regulation that requires senior officials to declare their assets, sources of income, liabilities and interests. He warned proper and regular updating of the information or content of their asset declaration would be assessed as one of the parameters used in performance appraisal.

Indonesia has been one of more than 140 countries that have issued regulations obliging senior public officials to declare their assets and income and, increasingly, the assets and income of their spouses and dependent children as part of the antigraft drive, which has been stepped up after the establishment of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in the early 2000s.

The antigraft law requires senior state and government officials, including lawmakers and political appointees, to declare their wealth in a standard asset declaration form to the KPK and annually update the wealth reports. But its enforcement has so far been quite weak because the regulation does not stipulate clear-cut provisions on verification and administrative and criminal penalties.

The KPK simply does not have sufficient resources to effectively verify the asset reports. Worse still, the enforcement of the mandatory asset declaration has suffered from moral hazards because it is not strongly supported with administrative and criminal penalties.

The experiences of other countries shows that strong enforcement of the compulsory asset declaration can serve as a strong deterrent to corruption and tax evasion if the wealth reports are properly verified and crosschecked against tax returns and data at the real estate registry, and those who do not report their assets are liable to administrative and criminal penalties.

The principal goal of income and asset disclosure systems is to combat corruption. Several countries with detailed asset disclosure requirements, such as Vietnam and India, have become more successful in discovering malfeasance, thereby enhancing the legitimacy of the government in the eyes of the public and stimulating foreign direct investment.

Information and communication technologies have greatly expanded the ability to collect and disseminate information about the assets and income of public officials.

Such public disclosure of asset declaration also allows civil society organizations and media to both monitor the integrity of senior public officials, including those in the police and military, and sets off public opinion pressures on those found to substantially and unjustly enrich themselves.

Since one of the main pillars of President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s campaign platform last year is integrity and clean government, he needs to demonstrate strong leadership in the enforcement of the compulsory asset declaration for senior public officials by improving the verification system for wealth reports.

The mandatory asset declaration regime will remain ineffective if its enforcement is not supported by stern administrative and criminal penalties.