Criminal Accountability of Government Officials Based on Discretion Authorities in the Perspective of the Indonesian Welfare Law State

Abstract

In the framework of a welfare law state, a government has two sources of authority, namely legality and discretion principle. In the implementation of state administration, the two authorities are complementary. Government officials’ authority which only originates from legality principle of general welfare as a welfare state goal is impossible to achieve. The freedom of government officials to make decisions based on discretionary authority has a great potential to be abused which has consequences from the perspective of administrative and criminal law. In its implementation, the understanding of government official’s discretionary authority accountability principles among law enforcers still varies. Government Administration actions taken based on the Discretion Principle, as a form of deviation from the inability of Legality Principle to reach public dynamic needs, are inappropriate and deserve to be convicted. The legislators are better to normalize the principle of hulprecht in every provision of law in the field of state administrative law as long as it is ultimum remidium.