TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) chief Harry Azhar Azis declined to comment on the sanction imposed against him by BPK Ethics Council. “Please ask the Ethics Council,” he said at Fairmont Hotel in Jakarta on Tuesday, October 25, 2016.
Harry has been found guilty by the BPK Ethics Council for owning a shell company in the British Virgin Islands. He was named in the Panama Papers as the founder of a company called Sheng Yue International Limited, which was set up in February 2010. The company was not found in Harry’s State Official Wealth Report (LHKPN).
Harry’s ethics hearing was held based on a report made by the Coalition to Save BPK (KS-BPK) in April 2016. BPK Public Relation and Foreign Affairs Bureau head Yudi Ramdan said Harry has been given a written warning.
Yudi said that the sanction will not have any effect on Harry’s BPK chief post.
The KS-BPK has expressed its dissatisfaction over the punishment’s lack of significance to Harry’s position and the fact the BPK Ethics Council did not audit the Golkar politician’s tax return.
Aside from demanding Harry’s resignation, the KS-BPK has also urged the Ethics Council to reveal Harry’s ethics investigation to the public. The Coalition said it will ask the Central Information Commission (KIP) for advice over the ethics investigation report, particularly on the extent of the confidentiality obligation as referred to by the BPK Ethics Council.
On the demand, Harry also declined to comment. “I have no comment,” he said.
VINDRY FLORENTIN
