TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Roy Salam said the names of the candidates of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) members that had been recently announced by the House had posed a threat to the agency’s independence.

"I think it will be difficult to avert conflicts of interest in the BPK’s auditing in the future,” he said on Tuesday, September 16, 2014, adding that four of the names announced hailed from political parties and were also House lawmakers.

He said this condition would affect the agency’s auditing at both the central and regional levels—with regards to the ties between political parties and those being audited and the connection between the BPK chief and the audited parties.

“How can they detach themselves from that kind of political interests, this will obviously undermine the BPK’s credibility,” he said.

Five BPK member candidates who gathered the most votes in the House selection are Harry Azhar Azis, Rizal Djalil, Achsanul Qosasi, Eddy Moelyadi Soepardi and Moeharmadi Soerja Djanegara. The first four are members of political parties, with Harry and Achsanul being House lawmakers of Commission XI overseeing financial affairs.

Roy said the presence of the three Commission XI lawmakers, who also members of political parties, had spelled potential conflicts of interest in the BPK. Three of the five BPK members selected by the House were also members of the Red and White Coalition, a group of avid supporters of defeated presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto.

PRIO HARI KRISTANTO