So The Minister Of Social Affairs, ICW Asks For Risma Tak Rangkap Jabatan

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo officially appointed Tri Risma Harini, as Minister of Social Affairs. Risma's appointment has its own problems. Because, at the same time, he is known to be still serving as the Mayor of Surabaya. Thus, the practice of holding multiple positions is again visible to the public.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) urged Tri Rismaharimi not to concurrently serve as Minister of Social Affairs and Mayor of Surabaya at the same time. ICW asked Risma to leave one of her posts.

ICW researcher Wana Alamsyah said that the concurrent position of Risma had violated law (UU) No. 23/2004 on Regional Government and Law No. 39/2008 on State Ministries.

According to Alamsyah, public officials should have the ability to understand regulations and be oriented towards the public interest. This is even more so if the officials are in the same class as the president and mayor with achievements that are said to be classy.

Alamsyah said, Article 76 letter h of Law Number 23 of 2014 concerning Regional Government explicitly prohibits regional heads and deputy regional heads from holding concurrent positions as other state officials.

Meanwhile, in Law Number 39 of 2008 concerning State Ministries Article 23 letter a stipulates that ministers are prohibited from concurrently holding other state official positions. Referring to other regulations, namely Article 122 of Law Number 5 of 2014 concerning State Civil Servants, ministers and mayors are referred to as state officials.

"This shows that both in his capacity as mayor or minister, Risma's position is against the two laws. The President's decision to allow public officials to hold dual positions is also clearly problematic," he said in an official statement, Thursday, December 24.

According to Alamsyah, a statutory order cannot be ruled out by a presidential permit, let alone a verbal permit. The appointment of Risma as minister without leaving the mayor's position can be considered legally flawed.

"Concurrent positions are also recognized by Risma as having received the President's permission. Through Risma's recognition, we can see the incompetence and lack of holding two public officials to the principles of public ethics. The first is Risma herself, the second is the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo," he said.

Furthermore, Alamsyah said, the phenomenon of multiple positions does not only occur during the election of a new minister. Previously, the Ombudsman had found similar practices in BUMN. Unfortunately, President Joko Widodo did not budge. In fact, this condition was normalized by President Joko Widodo.

In fact, said Alamsyah, normalizing the practice of holding multiple positions is the same as normalizing something that can lead to corrupt behavior. This is because concurrent positions can potentially create a conflict of interest when formulating a policy.

"The permission given by President Jokowi to Risma to carry out concurrent positions has increasingly shown permissive practices towards corrupt practices. Moreover, the decision violates the law and erodes the value of public ethics living in society," he said.

Therefore ICW urged Risma to resign from one of her posts. If Risma does not resign immediately, then he is not worthy of holding any public official position. Public attention also needs to be paid to the President of the Republic of Indonesia who gave permission to Risma for a concurrent position.

As previously reported, Risma said that for the time being he was concurrently serving as Minister of Social Affairs and Mayor of Surabaya. He said President Joko Widodo allowed him to temporarily return to Jakarta and Surabaya.

"Maybe because I'm still concurrently mayor for a while. I have the President's permission, 'It's okay, Mrs. Risma to go home'," said Risma in a virtual handover of the post of Minister of Social Affairs at the Ministry of Social Affairs, Wednesday, 23 December.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri) will dismiss Tri Rismaharini as the mayor of Surabaya. The East Java Provincial Government (Pemprov) has not accepted Risma's resignation as the mayor of Surabaya, even though he has officially served as Minister of Social Affairs (Mensos).

"We got information from the Ministry of Home Affairs through the Surabaya BKD, so what is used is Article 78 of Law 23 of 2014 and Article 88 of Law 23 of 2014. So it is not resigning, but is dismissed by the Minister of Home Affairs," said the Head of the East Java Regional Autonomy and Administration Bureau, Jempin. Marbun, confirmed Wednesday, December 23

Jempin explained that Risma could take two ways to leave her position as mayor of Surabaya. It could be resigned or it could be dismissed by the Minister of Home Affairs because he had a new assignment from the President.

"In Law 23/2014 a regional head can be dismissed because he died, resigned, third because he was dismissed. Well, this dismissal was because he was given an assignment by the president. Now this is also suitable for the legal basis," said Jempin.

Jempin stated that his party was still waiting for the decree to stop Risma from the Minister of Home Affairs. The dismissal decree which will become the legal basis for the Governor of East Java Khofifah Indar Parawansa to issue a letter of assignment to Plt.

The position of Acting Mayor of Surabaya, he said, will be automatically held by Whisnu Sakti Buana, who is the current representative for the Mayor of Surabaya.