PRESIDENT : GOVT OFFICIALS' RELATIVES FREE TO ENGAGE IN BUSINESS

Jakarta, Jan 15 (ANTARA) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said members of the families of government officials should not be banned from engaging in business so long as they did not violate existing regulations.
"It would be unfair not to allow relatives of government officials to engage in business because they have the right to do so if they do not violate the rules," the president said here on Thursday.
The head of state made the statement at a function to open an extraordinary national conference of the Indonesian Consultants National Association (Inkindo) at the State Palace.
Yudhoyono warned that businesses of government officials' family members should not cause conflicts of interest leading to such corrupt practice as price markups.
However, the president added, if the business activities of the officials' family members began to have something to do with the state and regional budgets, they should be tightly supervised.
He said during almost five years of his presidency, the accountability of the spending of state money on goods and services procurement projects had always been a top priority.
"Therefore, if the business activities of officials' family members start to enter state and regional budget area, they should be tightly supervised," Yudhoyono said.
According to the president, government's service and goods procurement was still weak and prone to misuse in state money.
"It has been one of my priorities during the five years of my government, although I am not satisfied with the accountability of state money spending," the president added.
Yudhoyono said he had asked that services and goods procurement at all state institutions at central and regional level, including the National Defense Forces (TNI) and National Police (Polri) be tightly supervised.
"Nothing is immune to supervision," the president said, adding that he would step up both legal and administrative action against various violations that occurred in procurement projects.
Meanwhile, Public Works Minister Joko Kirmanto admitted that the number of government officials family who have been doing business so far in various projects with state and regional budget money was not big.