TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - If we are expected to be good citizens by paying our taxes, shouldn’t we expect our tax officials to be equally trustworthy? The arrest of Handang Soekarno, head of the Tax Office’s law enforcement unit for accepting a Rp1.9 billion bribe, is nothing short of demoralizing. Imagine, he set a fee of 10 percent of the taxes to be evaded, plus Rp1 billion as payment for his illicit services! Yet, we shouldn’t be too surprised at this latest revelation, given that during the past five years, five tax officials have been jailed for bribery. With the redoubtable Sri Mulyani Indrawati at the helm of the finance ministry, we had hoped such scandals would miraculously vanish. To be fair, just three months on the job and having to deal straight away with the tax amnesty program, internal issues may not have come to mind immediately. “I demand the heaviest penalty,” she said, as reported in Koran Tempo. She also called on her colleagues “to cleanse the ministry of elements tainting its reputation.” Amen to that Ibu Ani, and to further discourage future corruptors, shame them and impoverish them by freezing their assets immediately after their indictment.
YULI ISMARTONO
