Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office (AGO) has been criticized for failing to encourage honesty within its ranks after it handed down weak punishments to 12 prosecutors who failed to conduct a proper examination of a corruption case involving tax employee Gayus Tambunan, who was later acquitted.
The six members of the prosecution team and six high-ranking prosecution office officials who approved the indictment of Gayus without adequate legal basis face either delayed promotion, demotion or dismissal. Two members of the prosecution team, Cirus Sinaga and Poltak Manullang, were officially demoted for allegedly "engineering" the indictment against Gayus.
The AGO handed out "light and moderate" punishments to four members of the team, Fadil Regan, Eka Kurnia Sukmasari, Ika Syafitri Salim and Nazran Azis, said Junior Attorney General for Monitoring Hamzah Tadja. The six high-ranking prosecution office officials also face deferred promotion or written warnings.
The 12 prosecutors were questioned by the AGO following their indictment of Gayus using the 2003 Money Laundering Law and the Criminal Code, which carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison, instead of the Corruption Law, which carries heavier punishments.
The AGO's punishments for the 12 prosecutors has raised public concern about the weak supervision of prosecutors. A member of the National Law Commission, Frans Hendra Winarta, said that internal and external supervision of prosecutors was inefficient and ineffective.
"Internal supervision is nonsense, they tend to protect each other," he said, adding that the current system in which bureaucrats monitor bureaucrats was not working.
He urged the government to strengthen the Judicial Commission, which currently can only investigate and recommend sanctions but not impose them.
Frans said his Commission had recommended the government establish an honors council comprising former police officers, former judges, former prosecutors and civil society elements to supervise all law enforcement agencies. "But the government never listens to any of our recommendations," he said.
A member of the Presidential Advisory Council, Ryaas Rasyid, agreed the government had to strengthen its supervision of prosecutors, but added that this step alone would not be enough unless the AGO fixed its system of recruitment and promotion.
"Integrity and competency must be the ultimate considerations in recruiting new members or promoting officers to higher posts," he said. Ryaas said the government should also consider improving remuneration for prosecutors because their salaries were not high enough. (rdf)