Economists Express Prohibition Of Multiple Positions Assessed As Key To Preventing Conflict Of Interest In SOEs

Illustration - Chairman of the Constitutional Court (MK) Suhartoyo (right) and Deputy Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court Saldi Isra (left) are preparing to lead the trial of the judicial review decision on the State Ministry at the Constitutional Court Building, Jakarta, Thursday (28/8/2025). (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The prohibition for deputy ministers (wamen) to hold concurrent positions as commissioners of SOEs is important to prevent conflicts of interest. This was stated directly by the Managing Director of the Management Institute of the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia (FEB UI) Toto Pranoto.

After previously prohibiting ministers from holding concurrent positions, the government and the Indonesian House of Representatives are currently discussing similar restrictions for the deputy minister in the Draft Law (RUU) on the Fourth Amendment to Law Number 19 of 2003 concerning BUMN.

"The position of the deputy minister is more towards the function of the regulator, so if you later serve as a commissioner of BUMN, especially in an arbitrary field, it will certainly cause a conflict of interest," said Toto Pranoto, quoted from ANTARA, Saturday, September 27.

In addition to the potential for conflicts of interest, he said that the involvement of the deputy minister in the board of commissioners of SOEs could make enforcement of the principles of good corporate governance (GCG) less ideal.

The short of office tends to reduce the quality of supervision of the decom (commissioner council), because sometimes there is a conflict of interest. On the one hand, it must be firm in implementing regulations, but as a SOE decom there are corporate interests that also need to be prioritized," he said.

Not only prohibiting ministers and deputy ministers, Toto also supports if the ban on concurrent positions is also applied to echelon I and echelon II officials of the ministry, considering that this can also reduce the impact of conflicts of interest.

"So, with this model, hopefully the quality of supervision by dekom with a more independent and credible figure can (be) better," he said.

The plan to ban the deputy minister from concurrent positions in the Bill on the Fourth Amendment to Law Number 19 of 2003 concerning SOEs is in accordance with the Constitutional Court Decision (MK) Number 128/PUU-XXIII/2025.

In the General Hearing Meeting (RDPU) in Jakarta, Thursday (25/9), Commission VI of the DPR RI, which has scope in the fields of trade, trade areas and supervision of business competition, and BUMN, emphasized efforts to increase state financial transparency through the revision of BUMN regulations.

"In this era, we are excited to clean up, we really want all the benefits of this SOE to be felt by the people," said Member of Commission VI DPR RI from the Golkar faction Kawendra Lukistian.

Similarly, Member of Commission VI DPR RI from the PDIP faction, Rieke Diah Pitaloka, said that the amendment to the BUMN Law shows the government's commitment so that all state management is carried out in a clean, transparent, with integrity, and must comply with public legal supervision.

The faction even suggested that the ban also applies to all ministry employees, including echelon I and echelon II officials.