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ational Police criminal investigation director Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso declined on Friday to report his assets to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), an obligation of state officials as required by law.

Instead, he challenged the antigraft body to launch an investigation into his assets.

'€œI do not want to report [my wealth]. Tell the KPK to fill in the wealth form [for me],'€ he said at National Police headquarters on Friday.

Budi denied that his stance violated the law, saying that not reporting his wealth was not a criminal act.

He said it would be more objective if the commission looked into his wealth rather than if he simply reported it.

'€œThat will be more objective. The KPK has its own team to probe my wealth. If state officials asked me to complete the form themselves, its contents could be different,'€ he said.

In accordance with the law, the commission asked Budi two months ago to report his wealth after he was appointed to his current post.

KPK spokesperson Priharsa Nugraha said Budi '€” who was sworn in as chief of the police'€™s detective corps on Jan. 19 this year, replacing Comr. Gen. Suhardi Alius '€” was required by Law. 28/1999 on state officials free of corruption, collusion and nepotism, to report his wealth to the commission.

A close subordinate of police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan during their time at the National Police Education Institute (Lemdikpol), Waseso was promoted to his current position amid the conflict between the police and the KPK.

The police moved against the KPK following the latter'€™s decision to name Budi Gunawan a suspect in a graft case, launching criminal investigations against then KPK commissioner Bambang Widjojanto and its investigators, including Novel Baswedan.

While Budi Gunawan has been cleared of charges, Bambang and Novel still face prosecutions.

Many called Budi'€™s remarks on Friday arrogant, contrasting his attitude with that of other high state officials, including President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, who had disclosed their wealth as required by law.

'€œJokowi, [former presidential hopeful] Prabowo, [Kalla] and [former coordinating economic minister] Hatta Rajasa were willing to report their assets. [Budi] is very arrogant with his power,'€ said Novel'€™s lawyer, Bahrain, as quoted by kompas.com.

Coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Haris Azhar, said Budi should give up his public post if he refused to respect the law.

'€œIf he does not want to comply with such a procedure, he should not have become a public official,'€ said Haris.

Haris said Budi'€™s refusal could spread to other police officials and undermine the effort to eradicate corruption in the country.

'€œHe is building a bad precedent that could be followed by other police officials who don'€™t want to report their wealth. It is dangerous,'€ he said.