PASSIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE APPOINTMENT OF THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF TAXES

This study examines the phenomenon of the impotence of the Minister of Finance’s authority in the appointment and dismissal of the Director General of Taxes as a consequence of the provisions of Article 3 paragraphs (1) and (3) of Government Regulation No. 11 of 2017 on the Management of Civil Servants, as amended by Government Regulation No. 17 of 2020. Although, structurally, the Directorate General of Taxes operates under the coordination of the Ministry of Finance, the position of the Director General of Taxes, being equivalent to a Senior Executive Leadership Position (Jabatan Pimpinan Tinggi Madya or echelon I.a), means that the authority to appoint, transfer, and dismiss the office-holder is excluded from delegation to the minister and remains vested in the President. This situation creates a disparity between the Minister of Finance’s functional. Using a normative juridical method combined with statutory, conceptual, and comparative approaches, the article argues that this arrangement produces a condition analogous to twin suns within a single ministry, whereby political accountability is concentrated in the Minister while formal personnel authority is retained by the Head of State. Drawing on the doctrines of attribution, delegation and mandate, the hierarchy of norms, and the principle of ministerial responsibility. The article demonstrates that the arrangement is constitutionally permissible yet administratively counter-productive.