Dismissal can be Done Legitimately

· 4 minutes read

Foto 6 HAL 1: ASN Korupsi

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — There is no need for supervisors of civilian state institutions to hesitate in firing civil servants who are found to have committed corruption. The Constitutional Court affirmed that such dismissals neither violate the law nor do they require an inkracht verdict from the court.

"If a civil servant is dismissed for committing a criminal offense related to his position, this is reasonable, because, by committing such a crime, a civil servant has misused or even betrayed the position entrusted to him as a civil servant," the content of the Constitutional Court ruling issued Thursday (25/4/2019) afternoon said.

The decision was signed by the chief justice of the court, Anwar Usman, along with court members Aswanto, I Dewa Gede Palguna, Wahiduddin Adams, Enny Nurbaningsih, Saldi Isra and Suhartoyo.

The court\'s decision is related to lawsuits filed by a number of civil servants convicted of corruption who had asked to be free from dismissal. In the court’s verdict, in response to an applicant named Hendrik from the Bintan regency administration, Riau Islands, the judges considered, Article 87 Paragraph (4) Letter b of the 2014 law on civil state institution members, which was used as the basis for the government in dismissing convicted civil servants.

Not only that, the panel of judges also argued that the government could fire workers without waiting for the inkracht decision period. The reason, Article 87 Paragraph (4) Letter b of the Civil Servants Law, applies to civil servants who are still active.

Starting point

Contacted separately in Jakarta on Friday (26/4/2019), the head of the Public Relations Bureau of the State Civil Service Agency (BKN), M. Ridwan, said the court\'s decision was expected to be a starting point for civil servant supervisors, who are still hesitant to fire civil servants convicted of corruption in their institutions. "This dismissal progress in the last one week only rose 1 percent. This Constitutional Court decision can be a new bullet for colleagues in the regions and at central level to speed up the process. There are no more reasons to delay," he said.

Based on BKN data, as of April 26, 2019, out of a total 2,357 civil servants convicted of corruption, only 1,147 had been honorably discharged. There are still 1,210 other civil servants convicted corruption, who have not been dismissed. The majority of them are civil servants in the regional governments.

Head of the Legal, Communication and Public Information Bureau of the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry, Mudzakir, said there needed to be an acceleration in the dismissal of civil servants convicted of corruption as the deadline set by the ministry of April 30, 2019 was approaching. "The Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry has issued a circular to civil servant supervisors to immediately dishonorably dismiss civil servants who have been convicted of corruption," he said.

For the record, the April 30 deadline is not the first. Mid-September 2018, Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo, Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Syafruddin and BKN head Bima Haria Wibisana signed a joint decree regarding the dismissal of 2,357 civil servants convicted of corruption with a deadline at the end of 2018.

Sanctions

Acting director general of regional autonomy at the Home Ministry, Akmal Malik, said his office and the Finance Ministry had prepared a draft regulation containing sanctions for civil servant supervisors who did not comply with the April 30 deadline. Sanctions range from administrative reprimand, temporary suspension of financial rights, to temporary termination of positions.

"In essence, we must remind the governors, regents, mayors and heads at the regional level to implement the law. If they don\'t implement the law, there will be sanctions," Akmal said.

Regional Autonomy Implementation Monitoring Committee regional director Robert Endi Jaweng said the lateness in dismissal of civil servants convicted of corruption had disrupted the acceleration of bureaucratic reform. Moreover, ironically, until now they had not received allowances or salaries.

The Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) previously mentioned that the potential for state losses due to the lateness in dismissals had reached Rp 4.23 billion per month or Rp 50.8 billion per year. The value is calculated from the average base salary of civil servants in group III with a working period of around 16 years, namely Rp 3.5 million per month. This amount does not include other allowances.

Deputy chairperson of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Laode M. Syarif, said the government had been quite strict in strengthening the rules related to the termination of the rights to work for civil servants who had received a verdict in a corruption case.

"Alhamdulillah [thank God], the Constitutional Court has decided that corruption convicts who are still working could be fired and their salaries stopped. In the future, this will be better," Laode said. (BOW/ERK)

Editor:

kompascetak