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s over one third of the House of Representatives membership have remained reluctant to report their wealth to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the House'€™s ethics council announced on Thursday that it would impose sanctions on lawmakers who had defied the antigraft body'€™s calls for submission since October 2014.

State officials, including House lawmakers, are required to submit their wealth reports to the KPK within two months of taking office as mandated by Law No. 28/1999 on clean governance. However, the law does not regulate any punishment for defiant state officials.

Since a new batch of House lawmakers were inaugurated on Oct. 1, 2014, as many as 214 legislators out of 554, including House Speaker Ade Komaruddin of the Golkar Party, have consistently ignored the KPK'€™s calls to comply with the law because of its inability to sanction, as claimed by the antigraft body.

It took days of recent media exposure on the disobedience of House lawmakers for the council to initiate the reprimand, with the ethics body planning to send notices to all lawmakers after they returned from recess on March 1.

'€œThe notices are aimed at reminding those who have forgotten to submit their wealth report,'€ council chairman Surahman Hidayat said on Thursday, adding that the council had asked the House Speaker to write to the KPK asking for the names of the 214 reluctant lawmakers.

Surahman said the council would move to sanction lawmakers who still failed to submit reports after receiving the notice, which would regulate new deadlines for the reports.

'€œWe will proceed with the violations. There will be sanctions but it will depend on the level of violation,'€ Surahman said, adding that he encouraged Ade to submit his wealth report before receiving his notice in order to inspire others.

Surahman acknowledged that lawmakers had different interpretations of the law, which made some of them disobedient.

KPK deputy for prevention Pahala Nainggolan said that in order to ensure future obedience, the KPK would demand President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s administration issue a government regulation that outlines a sanction for state officials who fail to submit their wealth report on time.

'€œWe are currently preparing a draft as guidance for the government to make the regulation. The proposed administrative sanctions include salary cuts and job promotion delays,'€ Pahala said.

He added that the KPK would soon send to the council the names of the 214 lawmakers.

Pahala said it would take time to revise the law to allow the KPK to prosecute defiant state officials, especially those who had questionable wealth on their listed possessions. He, however, signaled that such an initiative would meet resistance from the legislative body.

As the KPK could not openly probe questionable wealth listed on a state official'€™s report, especially possessions labeled as '€œbequests'€, the KPK since March had cooperated with the tax directorate to impose taxes on the controversial assets that did not match with that of the state official'€™s financial profile.

'€œWe have sent the wealth reports of state officials for verification with the tax directorate. In Hong Kong, superiors could bring their subordinates to court for their questionable wealth as part of their commitment to transparency,'€ Pahala said.

He said there was no reason for state officials to claim that they did not know how to prepare their wealth report.
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