Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – A number of non-governmental organizations suggested on Wednesday that the government dissolve the Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN) for failing to live up to the public's expectations in the fight against corruption.

The NGOs deemed that the commission, after one whole year of work, remained a toothless tiger with no outstanding achievements in unraveling how public servants came by their wealth. They said the commission had gone no farther than gathering data due to its lack of powers to verify reports of ill-gotten wealth.

In separate interviews, Wasingatu Zakiah of Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), Muhammad A. Asrun of Judicial Watch and Nizar Suhendra of the Indonesian Society for Transparency (MTI) said that changes should be made to the methods employed in the country's anticorruption methods.

They said the commission's failure to work in a professional manners was only to be expected as 34 of the commission members were politicians.

"It was clear for all to see that the political parties fought tooth and nail to win as many seats on the commission as possible so they could confer impunity on party colleagues who are public servants," Zakiah told The Jakarta Post.

Nizar also expressed doubt that the KPKPN could work well since "the members are only interested in salary increases rather then proving their abilities.

On Tuesday, State Minister for Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin revealed to the House of Representatives that as of January 24, less than 27 percent of the 40,506 public servants registered had returned their wealth declarations to the KPKPN.

The KPKPN's chairman, Yusuf Syakir of the United Development Party (PPP), has repeatedly said that the commission would audit a total of 51,500 wealth declarations by top-level public servants and verify them before announcing the results in the official gazette.

However, Zakiah said, the KPKPN had put the cart before the horse with the reports having been made public even though no verification process had been conducted.

Asrun added that the results of their field checks in several provinces showed that not all high-ranking judges and prosecutors have received the wealth declaration forms, although the KPKPN claimed to have distributed them last November.

Nizar went further and suggested that the KPKPN be dissolved and its auditing functions be given to the proposed anticorruption commission. The bill setting up the commission has now been passed to the House for deliberation.