21st July 2010. Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the directorate general of taxation should be able to restore public trust and to that end its rank and file must be able to show integrity, capacity and good performance. "The sooner it shows its good performance the sooner it will restore my confidence," the president said when he gave directives to the rank and file of the directorates general of taxation and customs and excises here on Wednesday.
The president called on the two directorates general to carry out bureaucratic reform, increase performance and abandon misconduct. He said early in his term as president in 2004, the directorates general of taxation and customs and excise were two institutions he first visited considering that the two institutions were of vital importance to the state.
"Now, six years on, some of them have changed but some others made no changes," the president said. On the occasion,Yudhoyono expressed disappointment that corruption has continued to happen in the tax, customs and excise directorates general. "Bluntly I have to express my disappointment because there are still corruption cases in your agencies ...there are still tax officers with extraordinary criminal records, unbelievable," the president said when giving directives to personnel of the Tax Directorate General and the Customs and Excise Directorate General at the State Palace, Wednesday.
He urged the agencies` personnel to carry out self-introspection if there is demoralization and de-motivation among their personnel following the people`s criticisms. "The source, or main factor which has caused demoralization and demotivation is the attitudes of several personnel have stained the credibility of the Tax Directorate General, in certain cases in the Customs and Excise Directorate General," the head of state said. He pointed out some examples such as the cases of Gayus Tambunan and Bahasym Asidi in tax fraud cases and a number of tax refund frauds in Surabaya (East Java) and Bandung (West Java).(*)
