Ade Ridwan Yandwiputra, Jakarta – At least 39 officials at the Finance Ministry possesses multiple positions as commissioners in state-owned companies or SOEs, the Secretariat of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) has discovered.
The finding was publicized after Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said that the wealth of state employees was not the result of corruption.
Fitra's advocacy and campaign team member, Gulfino Guevarrato, detailed that the multiple jobs are held by echelon I to echelon II officials, or from Deputy Minister to heads of bureaus positions.
"At least 39 employees of the Finance Ministry from echelon I and II have concurrent positions. Most of them serve as commissioners in SOEs and SOEs' subsidiaries," said Fino in a press conference on Friday, March 3, 2023.
Fino said that from the results of the findings, the income of an SOE commissioner is way higher compared to the salary of an official at the ministry.
For example, Fino explained that Finance Deputy Minister Suahasil Nazara currently serves as a commissioner of the state-owned electricity firm PLN. "For the position of Deputy Minister, he gets a monthly salary of Rp121 million, while, for the position of PLN commissioner, he gets Rp2.1 billion per month," said Fino.
Even though the multiple positions cannot be considered criminal acts of corruption, collusion, and nepotism, it is feared that ministry officials cannot focus on carrying out their duties. "Because they are more focused on taking care of the SOE affairs," Fino opined.
Previously, Sri Mulyani stated that the increase in assets of Tax Director General Suryo Utomo which is recently under the public spotlight is due to a hike in asset values. "So don't recklessly consider it from corruption," Minister Sri said at the 2023 CNBC Economic Outlook event, which was aired online in Jakarta on Tuesday, February 28, 2023.