Camelia Pasandaran & Arientha Primanita – Spot checks during the first post-holiday workday revealed shameful numbers of bureaucratic desks around West Java and Jakarta were – not-so-surprisingly – vacant.

The district head of Garut in West Java, Aceng Fikri, said a total of 6,000 district officials, about 30 percent of the staff, failed to report for work. "The national holiday from September 18 to 23 has ended. All employees should be back to work again," Antara quoted him as saying.

In one telling example, hundreds of officials from Garut's Secretariat Office who dutifully showed up on Thursday found themselves barred from their offices. The person entrusted the keys to the building could not be found – and was suspected to be taking "extra" holiday time.

Garut regional secretary Iman Alirahman told state news agency Antara that he blamed ignorance and a lack of discipline for the oversight. The homeless employees reportedly made the best of it, swapping holiday stories and photos outside the office.

In the provincial capital Bandung, about one in 10 local bureaucrats "played hookey." In Bogor, just south of Jakarta, about half of the local government workforce failed to show up.

According to news Web site Tempo Interactive, the governor of Bogor, Rahmat Yasin, who conducted a surprise inspection, promised to give the absent officials a warning.

In the Indramayu district of West Java, Kompas.com reported that a staggering 80 percent of local officials were absent.

Ahmad Juniadi, a local government spokesman, said civil servants should set a good example of a strong work ethic. "This is embarrassing," he told Kompas.com.

Dede Yusuf, deputy governor of West Java, recently declared that employees found to be absent from work after the holiday would be fired.

Snap inspections by Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo revealed the city' civil servants were slow to get back to the grind. The Regional Planning Board and the Jakarta Human Resources Agency passed muster, but the Public Works Agency on Jalan Taman Jati Baru in Central Jakarta failed to impress.

Agency secretary Kukuh Hadi said out of 367 employees, 327 showed up. Of the missing, 17 were absent without leave, 20 had taken official leave and three had been granted special permission, he said.

But 32 staff members had signed the morning work register and the end-of-work register at the beginning of the day, checking in and out at the same time, a clear violation of city rules. "We will reprimand employees who put multiple signatures on the attendance list. They will also get sanctions from the governor," he said. Fauzi said scheduled pay increases for absent officials should be delayed and that they should be demoted for one year.

"We will not tolerate undisciplined employees. Sanctions will be imposed on all delinquent civil servants regardless of their office and rank."