Plan To Appoint 56 KPK Employees As National Police ASN Strengthens Troubled TWK Signals

JAKARTA - National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo's desire to withdraw Novel Baswedan et al to the Bhayangkara Corps after being dismissed by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for failing to switch status to State Civil Apparatus (ASN) was highlighted by the Anti-Corruption Civil Society Coalition.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), which is a member of the coalition, said that Listyo's intentions further indicated that the National Insight Test (TWK), which was a requirement for the transfer of KPK employee status, had problems in its implementation. Moreover, the leadership of the anti-corruption commission and the government do not seem to have one voice.

"The government's plan to appoint 56 KPK employees to become ASN in the National Police also strengthens the signal that TWK is full of problems," said ICW researcher Kurnia Ramadana in a written statement to reporters quoted on Thursday, September 30.

He then alluded to the statement of the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD, who seemed not to agree with Firli Bahuri et al. According to Kurnia, the government revealed that the legal basis for the appointment of 56 KPK employees to become ASN was Article 1 Paragraph 1 of PP 17 of 2020.

"The regulation states that the President as the holder of the highest authority for the development of civil servants has the authority to determine the appointment of civil servants. At the same time, the KPK leadership said that employees cannot be appointed as ASN because they do not pass the TWK," he explained.

Kurnia then asked President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to reprimand and evaluate the KPK leadership for the noise they caused due to the TWK polemic. In addition, this step must be taken because the Indonesian Ombudsman and Komnas HAM have stated that there is maladministration and violations of employee rights in this assessment process.

"If the President appoints 56 ASN employees without being followed by an evaluation of the performance of the KPK leadership, then it is reasonable to suspect that the executive is also in the same position as Firli Bahuri and other commissioners," said Kurnia.

Before closing his statement, this anti-corruption activist also considered the attitude taken by President Jokowi as if he had never taken sides with the issue of strengthening anti-corruption institutions. Jokowi's silence over the polemic that occurred at the KPK, said Kurnia, is not the first time this has happened.

He brought up that last 2019, President Jokowi agreed to amend the KPK Law and contributed to the election of KPK leaders who were of very poor quality.

So to fix all of this, there are several things that the Anti-Corruption Civil Society Coalition has urged President Jokowi to do. "First, the President directly conveyed the follow-up to the dismissal of 56 KPK employees," said Kurnia.

"Second, President Jokowi implemented the recommendations of the Indonesian Ombudsman and Komnas HAM and finally, President Jokowi appointed 56 KPK employees to become ASN in the KPK," he added.

It was previously reported that 57 employees were declared unable to work at the KPK because they could not become ASN according to the mandate of the KPK Law Number 19 of 2019 as of the end of September. The employees include senior KPK investigators Novel Baswedan and Ambarita Damanik, Chairman of the KPK Employee Forum Yudi Purnomo, KPK investigator Harun Al-Rasyid, and dozens of other names.

The anti-corruption commission argues that their inability to become ASN is not due to laws and regulations such as Perkom KPK Number 1 of 2021 but because of the results of their assessment.

Ahead of the dismissal, the National Police Chief admitted that he wanted to recruit 56 KPK employees who did not pass the TWK to become Polri ASN. This desire was conveyed in a letter to President Jokowi last week and was approved.

The reason Sigit wants to recruit dozens of employees is because the Police need human resources to strengthen the line of action against corruption cases. Moreover, the National Police is currently also focusing on handling the COVID-19 recovery.