Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The Supreme Court defended Tuesday its widely criticized decision to send more than 70 judges and their staff on a trip to European and Asian countries using state money.
Critics have alleged that despite its complaints of a shortage of funds to finance its operations, including the establishment of corruption courts throughout the country, the Supreme Court engaged in useless and non-transparent projects that it hid from public scrutiny.
Supreme Court spokesman Hatta Ali, however, said the visits, which Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) says cost the state US$600,000, were meant to help officials learn about the advanced administrative system and the use of technology in European courts.
"There's nothing extraordinary about the visits. They helped us expand our knowledge, learn about other systems and compare them with our own system in Indonesia. We've learned a lot from the trips," Hatta argued.
"For example, [we learned about] the process of recruiting and supervising justice candidates. We also learned how to quickly settle cases using technology. We're really in the dark ages in technology terms and we're trying to improve."
He also said the trips did not violate any regulations as they had been approved and were included in the 2009 state budget.
"Each foreign visit was budgeted for, cleared and approved. We never attempted to benefit from so-called excessive funds. The trips were planned for the middle of the year, but due to our tight schedule, we could only travel later in the year," Hatta added.
Supreme Court deputy chief Abdul Kadir Mappong said the court would hold a plenary session to discuss the results of the visits.
ICW, however, accused the Supreme Court of funding the trips as a means of using up its budget toward year-end.
ICW's Emerson Yuntho said Monday night that the so-called comparative studies abroad frequently done by Indonesian state officials had never been proven to be of any benefit to the country so far.
"There has been no evaluation on the effectiveness of such comparative studies. This has sparked concerns that state officials or judges taking part in such trips do so merely for sightseeing or shopping," Emerson said.
ICW reported that in October, 68 Supreme Court officials, including some of the justices, took trips to Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Australia and Japan in separate groups.
This month, 13 other Court officials also went on four-day visits to Thailand and Malaysia. The corruption watchdog says among those who took part in the trips were justices, their staff and researchers.
"The visits were done toward year-end. This may imply the trips were meant to use up any excess in the Supreme Court's budget," Emerson added.
He reminded the court to show transparency and report to the public the results of the visits, saying that they were done "silently" and not mentioned on the Supreme Court's official website.
"In accordance with existing regulations, the public has the right to secure information from the courts," Emerson said.
He said the money would have been better used to help the poor get access to legal aid or fund the establishment of a much-needed national corruption court system.