The Ombudsman announced in late July that the organizing of a civic knowledge test, required for KPK employees to become civil servants, was marred by maladministration from the get-go. This includes mismanagement of the deliberation of an internal KPK regulation, which later became the only document giving a legal basis for the organizing of the test between March and April. The Ombudsman, in an interim recommendation, asked the KPK to revoke the dismissal of 75 workers and top investigators who did not pass the test and to change their status to civil servants.

KPK deputy chairman Nurul Ghufron told a press conference on Thursday that the Ombudsman had meddled in the KPK's internal employment affairs. He said the Ombudsman had no power to probe the KPK policymaking process because the authority to conduct judicial reviews of internal regulations lay with the Supreme Court, and therefore the Ombudsman should have declined the request for investigation filed by former KPK employees.

Nurul later made a counter accusation against the Ombudsman of maladministration in the handling of the case, particularly when it questioned him in the investigation. He said it should have been one of the Ombudsman commissioners who questioned him, not a deputy assistant.

Read also: Controversial test puts KPK management in spotlight

Critics saw this as an attempt to discredit the Ombudsman and divert public attention away from the alleged maladministration surrounding the civics test. They said the Ombudsman had the power to investigate whether the organizing of the civics test was in line with procedures and therefore could look into the KPK's policymaking process.

“This kind of reaction [from the KPK] is nonsense. Anyone, regardless of their position, can file a report with the Ombudsman,” Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) activist Kurnia Ramadhana said on Saturday.

Constitutional law expert Feri Amsari of Padang-based Andalas University said the KPK had misinterpreted the Ombudsman's role. He questioned why the KPK did not use the moment to explain to the public what it had done to follow up the Ombudsman's findings, particularly regarding its decision to dismiss 75 employees.

He suspected the KPK was trying to tell the public that the Ombudsman made the same mistake the KPK had made.

He said that following the KPK’s hostile response to the accusation of maladministration, the Ombudsman should not wait any longer to issue a final recommendation.

The Ombudsman's findings and its interim recommendations regarding corrective measures must be followed up by any institution within 30 days after receiving the documents, or the Ombudsman will issue mandatory final recommendations. Failure to comply with final recommendations will result in an administrative penalty.

Read also: Civic test should not be used to dismiss KPK employees: Jokowi

Sujanarko, one of the KPK employees who failed the test and were dismissed, criticized the KPK for using irrelevant arguments in disputing the Ombudsman's findings, saying the KPK “leadership has truly lost its sensitivity in interpreting laws and regulations”.

He said that as the Ombudsman had yet to issue a final recommendation, the KPK should have used the opportunity to evaluate and improve its employment management system, as well as restore public trust.

"Yet they chose to attack another state institution with irrelevant arguments,” he said.

Sujanarko said he and other KPK employees were waiting for the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) to publish next week the result of an investigation into alleged rights violation during the organizing of the civics test before considering other strategies to fight their dismissal

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