​Secretary General Of DPR Becomes Commissioner Of BUMN, Formappi: Multiple Positions How To Maintain A Culture Of Corruption

DPR Building/Illustration of DOK ANTARA

JAKARTA - Researcher of the Indonesian Parliamentary Concerned Community Forum (Formappi) Lucius highlighted the appointment of the Secretary General of the DPR Indra Iskandar as Commissioner of PT Biro Statistik Indonesia (BKI) a state-owned company. Formappi questioned the seriousness of the Government, BUMN, and the DPR to encourage good governance.

"In particular, the DPR, I think the appointment of the secretary-general for the commissioner position needs to be taken seriously. If the DPR allows Indra Iskandar to become a commissioner, it means that it is necessary to question the seriousness of the DPR to ensure good state governance practices," said Lucius, Monday, 19 July.

According to him, Indra Iskandar's status as secretary general of the DPR as well as commissioner is a form of concurrent position. This, said Lucius, of course not in accordance with the mission of managing a clean government because of the potential for conflicts of interest.

"The conflict of interest due to multiple positions should not be a cheap issue for a country that is still thick with a culture of corruption. Multiple positions can be considered as a way for the government and the DPR to maintain a culture of corruption that is entrenched in state institutions," explained Lucius.

According to him, the potential for irregularities in positions due to concurrent positions should be a crucial issue that is part of the DPR's supervisory role. The DPR, said Lucius, should not pretend to be indifferent as if there were no problems behind the government's omission of the dual position practice.

"The DPR's firm stance is certainly more urgent when the practice of concurrent positions actually occurs in their 'kitchen', which is the secretary general of the DPR," he said.

In addition, according to him, the DPR's omission can be interpreted as a form of their support for the practice of concurrent positions as well as the potential arising from such dual positions such as corruption. Allowing the Secretary General of the DPR to concurrently serve as a commissioner is clearly contrary to the function of the Secretary General as a supporting system for the DPR.

"The work of the DPR which is very large and covers all related fields in the government can become even more chaotic when the Secretary General still has to be burdened with other tasks as a commissioner of BUMN PT BKI," he explained.

Lucius considered that the role of the Secretary General of the DPR as the controller of the supporting system certainly presupposes his professionalism. Moreover, the poor performance of the DPR which continues to be in the spotlight should be an indicator of the importance of a strong secretary general institution to ensure that the performance of the DPR does not get worse.

"The position of the secretary general is actually unique. Functionally, he is responsible to the leadership of the DPR, but administratively to the government. This condition alone shows the complexity of the secretary general's position. So a new position as commissioner is clearly not a solution to ensure that the Secretary General of the DPR works professionally. adds to the burden and responsibility and at the same time shows how the responsibility is increasingly being ignored," he explained.

As a rule, continued Lucius, the prohibition on concurrent positions can be found in a number of laws, such as the law on public services, the BUMN law, and others. He said, the prohibition in the laws was certainly not without reason and also without follow-up.

"If the existing prohibitions can still be circumvented, then I don't know what it is still important to consider the work of the DPR to make the law something useful," he said.

Previously, the Secretary General of the DPR, Indra Iskandar, denied that he had been sworn in as Commissioner of the Indonesian Classification Bureau (BKI) Persero. According to him, this is just a proposal and has not officially appointed him as an official in the state-owned company.

"I'm also still hearing that, there hasn't been any letter of information, so there's no correspondence yet for the verbal proposal. I want to say if it's wrong," said Indra when contacted by VOI, Monday, July 19.

The news is known from the pamphlet circulating in electronic messages. It was written that the entire extended family of PT Servant Nasional Indonesia (Pelni Persero) wished 'Congratulations and Success on the inauguration of Mr. Indra Iskandar as Commissioner of PT Biro Statistik Indonesia (Persero).

"Yes, but there is nothing black on white yet," said Indra.

Mentioned that he was waiting for an official letter, Indra just laughed. But he asked to pray for the news to be true.

"Amen, pray for it to be true," said Indra.