A

lack of government attention to the welfare of Bandung’s Corruption Court officials, as indicated by the absence of clear-cut regulations regarding their allowances, has been blamed for the sluggish work by many clerical staff at the court.

Bandung Corruption Court spokesman Susilo Nandang Bagio said that since the court start operating in January this year, the government had yet to pay allowances to the replacement court secretaries.

“As a result, many of the replacement secretaries work in a lethargic way because they have received no payment, while the responsibility of the work entrusted to them is heavy,” Susilo, who is also an acting court secretary, said in Bandung, West Java, on Friday.

Susilo said the court’s replacement secretaries were selected from the 42 court secretaries working at the Bandung District Court.

They are grouped into three divisions: general, industrial relations and corruption trials, and work alternately within the three different areas.

During the period between January and June 2011, according to Susilo, 15 court secretaries were deployed to the corruption court. Currently, the second batch of court secretaries are working at the court and will do so until the end of this year.

“They [court secretaries] work as hard as the court’s judges — who can earn between Rp 11 million to Rp 13 million a month — but they receive nothing,” he said.

He added that when photocopying documents, the court secretaries had to use money from the Bandung District Court’s general crime operational post thanks to a policy introduced by the district court’s head, Joko Siswanto.

Furthermore, apart from having no trial room of its own, the corruption court also lacks other support facilities, such as computers and furniture. It shares facilities with the Bandung District Court.

According to Susilo, the Rp 500 million in funding to purchase furniture is still at the State Treasury Office (KPKN) and cannot be withdrawn to make purchases because of the absence of a corruption court building.

Susilo added, however, that despite the late payments of their salaries, many replacement court secretaries were still doing their jobs according to the prevailing laws.

Forty-six out of the 93 corruption cases handed over to the corruption court have been processed, with the defendants tried and sentenced, four of whom were acquitted.

Separately, the spokesman for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Johan Budi, urged the Supreme Court (MA) to evaluate the remuneration of regional corruption court judges rather than disband the institutions.

He said regional corruption courts were still needed to help eradicate corruption thoroughly. “We are asking instead for recruitment and remuneration evaluations because they [corruption court staff] are not just dealing with petty criminals, meaning the temptations they’re facing are also tougher,” Johan said.

“With regard to the late payments, we really have no idea about that because they come solely under the authority of the Supreme Court,” Johan said.