President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's administration recently issued Government Regulation No. 41/2020 on the status changes, a regulation mandated by the controversial revision to the KPK Law, which stipulates that all previously independent employees of the agency would become civil servants, giving a two-year transition period to implement the change.

Presidential expert staff member Dini Shanti Purwono said the regulation would not reduce the KPK’s independence, citing Article 3 of the revised law, which stipulates that the KPK would remain independent and free from any external powers.

“The government has no intention of weakening the KPK in this case. On the contrary, this is a part of [our efforts] to strengthen Indonesia’s corruption eradication institution,” Dina said in a statement published on Monday.

She also said the status change would not reduce the employees’ salaries. The regulation itself stipulates that all KPK employees will be paid like other civil servants, meaning they will receive benefits in addition to their primary salary.

Critics, however, expressed fear the change would undermine the KPK's ability to fight graft, with former KPK commissioner Laode M. Syarif saying that an independent anticorruption body also required its staff members to be independent in order to fulfill their mandates.

Laode, who served as commissioner from 2015 to 2019, also criticized the new wage system as the commission has long stressed the importance of a single salary system to ensure accountability.

“With this regulation, [employees] can appear to have small salaries but receive benefits, meeting fees and other [additions] that are large and difficult to account for,” Laode said during Monday’s discussion with the Jentera School of Law.

Meanwhile, antigraft watchdog Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Kurnia Ramadhana argued the change in employee status would reduce the independence of graft busters as KPK investigators would become civil investigators (PPNS), which fall under the supervision of the National Police.

He added that the change could also disrupt corruption investigations as, due to their civil servant status, the government could easily transfer KPK employees to other state institutions.

In response to the criticisms, KPK commissioner Nurul Ghufron insisted that his staff would remain independent despite the changes in wage system and status.

“The independence of our employees as law enforcers is born from the spirit and understanding that the KPK is a law enforcement agency and independence is the main thing in enforcing the law,” Nurul said as quoted by kompas.com on Tuesday.

In late June, KPK chairman Firli Bahuri made a request to the House of Representatives for Rp 928.8 billion (US$65.1 million) in additional funds for the KPK's 2021 budget to, among other programs, support the employees’ transition to civil servants.

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