Jakarta – Indonesia's Parliament passed an anti corruption law Thursday that requires government officials to declare all their assets to a supervise commission set up by the president.

The new bill, endorsed during a plenary session of House, will apply to all government officials including the president.

After being signed by B.J. Habibie, the new bill would give a six-month transition period for government officials to report their personal assets to the special commission.

The independence commission would audit assets of any civil servant who would be installed as a government official.

All factions in the parliament agreed that the law "was badly needed in order to create a clean and respective government."

Those violating the law would face a maximum penalty of 12 years in jail and pay a fine of one billion rupiah ($1.1 million).

Sofyan Lubis, spokesman of the ruling Golkar party noted that the new law would also cover officials from strategic posts including president, cabinet ministers, leaders of parliament as well as highest institutions and senior officials.

"These posts are very prone to corruption, collusion and nepotism, and the this law is aimed at combatting such practices," he said.

Minister of Justice Muladi who represented the government, said the law guarantees the people's rights to get, give and look for" information on governance.

Muladi noted that government officials were unable to carry out their duties optimally under 32-year authoritarian rule of former President Suharto who was forced to resign last May.

Suharto himself has been questioned by government lawyers over allegations of corruption.

The government has revealed that corruption under the Suharto government has resulted in a total of $571 million between 1993 and to October 1998.