Suspicious side gig: Nearly 400 state officials have concurrent roles at state firms
The Indonesian Ombudsman has found that hundreds of state officials, including active members of the police and military, sit as commissioners of state-owned enterprises, resulting in what it says is a conflict of interest and poor accountability.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Ombudsman member Alamsyah Saragih said that data collected by his office indicated that 397 state officials had concurrent roles at state firms, while 167 others had secured positions at subsidiaries of those companies.
Of those found to have second positions at state firms, 65 percent are active members of the National Police, the Indonesian Military, the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), the Attorney General's Office (AGO), the State Audit Agency (BPKP)Â or local administrations, according to the Ombudsman.
In addition, staff members at 16 state universities, including the University of Indonesia and Gadjah Mada University, were found to have taken simultaneous roles at state enterprises.
Alamsyah said the phenomenon was partly the result of a legal loophole in the amended Government Regulation No. 53/2010 on civil servant discipline, which supposedly did not forbid state employees from assuming secondary roles as commissioners of state enterprises or any of their subsidiaries unless those employees served as active members of political parties.
He said Law No. 25/2009 on public service - which, on paper, prohibits civil servants from securing concurrent positions at state firms - had often been deflected by those holding both positions on the basis of semantics.
"The Ombudsman had found that the clash between the two regulations has resulted in an [unfair] recruitment process, ethical negligence, conflicts of interest, discrimination and poor accountability," Alamsyah said, adding that his office would officially write to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry about its concerns.
