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akarta Deputy Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat has revealed that he has received reports that a number of the city administration'€™s lawyers, all of whom are civil servants, are '€œplaying for the other team'€ and have deliberately lost cases they were handling.

The city'€™s lawyers are all staffers at the Jakarta Legal Bureau. Djarot acknowledged that the legal bureau faced difficult challenges and complicated cases, noting that as such, the division required utmost professionalism and skill from its lawyers.

'€œWe have received reports that some staffers at the legal bureau are playing for the other team. If you are not able to reject millions or billions of rupiah in dirty money, you should just resign right now,'€ Djarot said during a meeting with bureau staff at City Hall on Tuesday.

According to some of the reports, he went on, certain lawyers had blatantly issued statements that supported their opponents during court trials.

'€œIf I find any of these reports to be true, you will be fired and I will personally make sure that you are jailed,'€ he told the assembled legal staff.

The city administration intended to overhaul the Legal Bureau, Djarot further revealed, as it was an important working unit, but currently lacked adequate human resources. He added that the city administration would review all cases it had lost and attempt to seek new evidence in order to file counter-lawsuits or submit judicial reviews.

'€œWe will review all the cases that we'€™ve lost. If we find new evidence, we will take action,'€ he said.

Newly inaugurated Jakarta Legal Bureau head Yayan Yuhanah said that the city'€™s lawyers were staffers of the bureau'€™s legal services division, and currently numbered only 10.

In 2015, Yayan said, the legal bureau handled 44 legal cases, most of which were cases regarding assets and took place in East and South Jakarta. There are currently 42 ongoing legal cases.

'€œWe face a number of difficulties, and we win some cases, lose others. However, we always try our best and work with the documents we have,'€ Yayan insisted during Tuesday'€™s meeting at City Hall.

Separately, Jakarta Legal Bureau legal services head Solafide Sihite denied the reports of corruption among city lawyers, stressing instead that his division suffered from a lack of human resources and was overwhelmed by the number of cases it had to handle.

'€œThere are only 10 employees in the legal services division, so one staffer handles up to four cases at any given time. Ideally, the division would comprise a staff of 25,'€ Solafide told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Tuesday.

As well as fighting the city'€™s cases in court, he explained, the legal services division also handled legal complaints filed to the administration, as well as providing legal counselling for residents of the capital.

'€œStarting this year, we will increase the size of our staff and make sure all staffers are given proper legal training by Peradi [the Association of Indonesian advocates],'€ he said.

He added that most legal cases filed against the city administration regarded assets, requiring the legal bureau to coordinate with the Financial and Asset Management Board (BPKAD). However, he said, the BPKAD chronically lacked the documentation necessary to fighting the city'€™s cases in court.

'€œWe often lose because of the lack of necessary documents to support our case,'€ the lawyer claimed.