Arientha Primanita – The Constitutional Court announced on Wednesday new measures aimed at greater transparency following recent allegations of bribery that prompted the resignation of a judge.
Janedjri M. Gaffar, the court's secretary general, said it would work with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) as part of efforts to be "a clean judiciary."
"We want to implement principles of good governance in order to provide clean and corruption-free judicial functions in the Constitutional Court," he said.
One of the measures to achieve this is the launch of an e-audit program, through which court officials will upload their financial reports for the BPK to audit. The remote audit is expected to eliminate face-to-face meetings between court officials and auditors, in turn reducing the risk of bribery.
Another program will see the court participate in the KPK's gratuities control program to prevent judges or other court officials taking any kind of payment from third parties or those with cases pending. Under the program, both the court and the KPK will provide funding for consultation, information-gathering, monitoring and evaluation efforts.
Busyro Muqoddas, the KPK's chairman, lauded the court for taking the initiative in tackling the threat of graft within its ranks. "In fighting corruption, the most important thing is prevention rather than punishment," he said. "Therefore this should be the main focus in the fight against corruption."
Busyro added that for an institution to foster a corruption-free environment, it would require strong a leader to set an example for the rest of the officials. He praised Mahfud M.D., the Constitutional Court chief justice, for his efforts to improve transparency in the court.
"Since I began chairing the KPK almost a year ago, Mahfud has come to my office on three occasions to report gratuities that he received, which is admirable because it is part of good governance," Busyro said.
He added that the KPK had carried out gratuity control programs at other institutions such as state-owned oil company Pertamina, airline Garuda Indonesia and Bank Jabar-Banten, which resulted in increases in reports of unsolicited payments.
"Now that the Constitutional Court has joined the program, it can be an agent for change in the antigraft campaign," he said.
The Constitutional Court has been considered one of the few bastions of integrity in the law enforcement sphere, but its reputation took a hit earlier this year when it was revealed that the daughter of Justice Arsyad Sanusi took a bribe from a plaintiff in a case that he was hearing.
He denied receiving any of the money but promptly resigned to save the court further embarrassment. However, Arsyad's his name was dragged up soon after in another case surrounding the issuance of a fake court ruling that appointed a legislative seat to the wrong candidate.
Mahfud, a former lawmaker, was last week elected to serve a fresh term as court chief.