Anies Baswedan could be facing dismissal as Jakarta governor if he did not implement the Ombudsman’s recommendations on the closure of Jl. Jatibaru Raya in the Tanah Abang business district of Central Jakarta, a Home Ministry official has said.
The Ombudsman team announced on Monday that the governor, along with the Jakarta Small and Medium Enterprises Agency, had been found to be incompetent and unlawful in their December 2017 policy to close Jl. Jatibaru Raya to accommodate street vendors.
The team has urged the administration to evaluate the spatial planning of Tanah Abang in connection with the policy while reopening Jl. Jatibaru Raya and relocating the street vendors along the road.
“If the governor refuses to implement the recommendations, he can be accused of administrative violations for failing to follow up on public complaints over the local policy,” Home Ministry director general of regional autonomy Sumarsono said on Monday as quoted by kompas.com.
Sumarsono added that sanctions for administrative violations were stipulated in Government Regulation No.12/2017 on guidance and supervision of local administration. The sanctions could be in the form of a written warning or withholding funding for up to three months, with dismissal as the heaviest sanction.
“The Home Ministry will review and assess the level of the violation,” said Sumarsono.
The ministry will send a written warning to the regional head in the first stage, proceeding to a second written warning if no response was forthcoming.
“After that, the regional head can be [temporarily] dismissed for three months if he does not implement the recommendation. The final sanction is a permanent dismissal,” Sumarsono said.
The Ombudsman said the Jakarta administration had committed four acts of maladministration in closing the road: incompetence, deviation from procedure, neglect of legal obligations and unlawful action.
It has set a maximum 60 days for the administration to follow up on its recommendations, which should involve all related institutions in their execution.
