Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – The head of the Central Information Commission says the police refusal to disclose the identities of police officers with massive bank accounts violates the freedom of information law.
On Friday, police said they had completed their investigation of several suspiciously large bank accounts registered police officers, but refused to disclose the identities of the account holders and the details of the investigation. They said announcing the names violated the freedom of information law, which exempts certain information from being disclosed.
Commission chairman, Ahmad Alamsyah Saragih, disagrees. "The police have to identify the officers because it is part of their obligation as public officials," Ahmad told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
The Freedom of Information Law stipulates that information about a public official's bank account should not be exempted from the rule on confidentiality.
In fact, Ahmad said, under the law, public officials who refuse to disclose information that is relevant to the public interest could face a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a Rp 5 million fine.
Ahmad said the police's refusal to disclose the information was because they are not knowledgeable of the law. He called on the public and non-governmental organizations to make official requests to the police regarding the information.
"If the police continue to withhold the information, concerned parties can come to us and we will conduct an examination into the matter," he said.
Ahmad said the process of requesting information from police and obtaining results could take two to three months.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang earlier announced the result of a police internal investigation into the suspicious personal bank accounts.
He said that of the 23 personal bank accounts, 17 had been cleared of any indication of crime. Only two accounts were considered problematic. The media has learned that one of the accounts belonged to Papua Police officer Comr. Martin Reno, who beat charges of alleged involvement in illegal logging.
Edward confirmed one of the accounts belonged to Martin but refused to identify the owner of the other account.
Police are still verifying three other accounts while one account could not be examined further because its owner had passed away, Edward said.
Edward refused to identify any of the account holders, saying that revealing identities of personal bank account owners was a violation of the freedom of information law.
Febri Diansyah of the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said his organization planned to request the information from the police and the Central Information Commission.
"I don't understand why police want to keep the information a secret while on the other hand we also have laws requiring public officials to publicly declare their personal wealth," he said.
University of Indonesia police expert Bambang Widodo Umar questioned the procedures by the police in verifying some of the personal bank accounts.
He said that in addition hiding information from the public, the police's method in clarifying the personal wealth was questionable since there was no transparency from the start.