"The success of the operation to eradicate the menace of illegal levies will help improve the public services," MUI Chairman Ma`ruf Amin said.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has urged the government to continue the operation aimed at ending the culture of illegal levies.
"The success of the operation to eradicate the menace of illegal levies will help improve the public services," MUI Chairman Maruf Amin said here on Wednesday.
Malpractices such as illegal levies were only imposing an economic burden on the people.
"Officials found guilty of receiving illegal levies clearly did not bear good moral values," he affirmed.
On Tuesday, President Joko Widodo had confirmed that police had arrested certain officials of the Ministry of Transportation on charges of collecting illegal levies.
"We discussed the illegal levies eradication operation (OPP). We received a report from the National Police chief that some officials of the Ministry of Transportation were arrested on charges of collecting illegal levies for issuing shipment documents. Various amounts were being charged. In some cases, levies involved hundreds of thousands of rupiah while in certain other cases, these ran into millions of rupiahs," the president disclosed as he inspected the search operation at the Ministry of Transportations premises.
He made it clear that he had reached the scene to ensure that the search of the ministrys premises to catch the culprits runs smoothly.
The president further asked all agencies and institutions to stop such malpractices and reiterated that standard operating procedures have been put in place.
"I have ordered immediate arrest and dismissal of irresponsible officials who were found guilty of receiving illegal levies, particularly when it comes to public services," the president added.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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