To show its commitment to the fight against corruption, the Attorney General's Office will create anti-graft task forces in each of the country's 33 provinces, the attorney general said Friday.
Led by "tough prosecutors who have integrity", the special units will tackle corruption cases in their respective regions. They will begin work on December 8.
"December 9 is International Anti-Corruption Day. We will use the momentum from the commemoration to activate the special units," Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said during a visit to the Bangka-Belitung Prosecutor's Office in Pangkal Pinang.
Before his appointment to the top post of the prosecutors' corps last year, Hendarman led an interdepartmental anti-corruption team. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono did not extend the service of the team after naming Hendarman attorney general.
Hendarman said the AGO would examine a short list of prosecutors for the special units, and require them to regularly report their wealth once selected.
"These prosecutors will spearhead the handling of graft cases in their respective jurisdictions. There should be no more prosecutors mishandling corruption cases and making wrong indictments," Hendarman said as quoted by Antara.
At present there are seven special anti-corruption task forces in seven major provinces: Jakarta, North Sumatra, South Sumatra, West Java, Central Java, East Java and South Sulawesi.
Hendarman said most of the young prosecutors recruited for the special unit hailed from "ordinary families". Several of them are relatively well-off, but background checks by the AGO found they had inherited their money from their parents.
Hendarman said the law enforcers demonstrated their passion when solving various cases during their stint in the prosecutor's office. It took them an average of three months to complete investigation of a case, he added.
A delegation of Thai prosecutors visiting Indonesia a few months ago was reportedly impressed by the young Indonesian anti-graft special unit members.
"These special prosecutors work hard every day until dawn. We will propose to the Finance Ministry that they be given better remuneration," Hendarman said.
The AGO dismissed 40 district prosecutor's office chiefs in May for failing to investigate a minimum of three graft cases per month, part of a new standard introduced by Hendarman to assess the performance of regional chief prosecutors.
Deputy Attorney General Muchtar Arifin said the dismissed prosecutors also lacked leadership, thus adversely affecting the performance of their teams.
The AGO is facing growing public distrust, following the arrest and conviction of senior prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan for accepting bribes from a businesswoman. Earlier this month, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.