The Attorney General's Office on Tuesday rotated five deputies, in a move seen as another bid to sweep controversial officials under the rug.
AGO spokesman Didiek Darmanto said Marwan Effendy, the current deputy attorney general for special crimes, had been appointed the new deputy for internal supervision, replacing Hamzah Tadja, who takes up the mantle of deputy for general crimes.
Didiek said the order for the rotation had been signed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and would take effect on May 27.
Marwan, whose main job deals with corruption cases, has been widely panned for allowing rampant graft within his own ranks and for dropping major cases. Indonesia Corruption Watch has listed 60 such cases dropped by the AGO's special crimes unit since Marwan took the reins in 2008.
The AGO has also come under intense scrutiny for not punishing the prosecutors who tried rogue tax official Gayus Tambunan on lesser charges of embezzlement while dropping the more serious charges of money-laundering and corruption.
Gayus was acquitted in March, but the fallout from the case has dragged in the presiding judge and investigating police officers on suspicion of taking bribes.
However, the 12 prosecutors involved in the case got off lightly, with sanctions ranging from demotion to suspension of promotion.
Replacing Marwan as deputy for special crimes will be M Amari, the current deputy for intelligence. Amari has also drawn his share of criticism from rights groups, most notably for banning several books on the grounds that they were "harmful to public order."
Amari, in turn, will be replaced by Edwin Pamimpin Situmorang, the current deputy for civil and state administrative affairs. Edwin, meanwhile, will be replaced by Kamal Sofyan Nasution, the deputy for general crimes.
ICW deputy chairman Emerson Yuntho said any meaningful reshuffle should begin with Attorney General Hendarman Supandji being replaced.
"He has failed to reform his office or punish AGO officials linked to case-brokering and bribery," he told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday.
"He has also failed to mete out harsh punishment in the wake of the Gayus scandal. The measures taken by the AGO will in no way serve as a deterrent against corruption," Emerson added.
In testimony this month before the House of Representatives' Commission III overseeing legal affairs, Hendarman owned up to several failures in his job, saying, "I never said my leadership has been successful."
His pitted track record began in 2008, when the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) arrested senior prosecutor Urip Tri Gunawan for taking a $660,000 bribe from businesswoman Artalyta Suryani in exchange for dropping embezzlement charges against her business partner and fugitive tycoon Sjamsul Nursalim.
Sjamsul was being probed for siphoning off government liquidity support paid into his bank, PT Bank Dagang Negara Indonesia, to prop it up during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
Urip was later convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison, but three other prosecutors alleged to have conspired with him were merely transferred to different posts. Nivell Rayda