Monitoring court officials could wipe out corruption

Monitoring court officials could wipe out corruption

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

"Thieves for their robbery have authority when judges steal
themselves," Shakespeare, the famous English bard, once said.

The words, which were expressed by a man who lived more than
400 years ago, still ring true in Indonesia today, with the
judicial system widely regarded as one of the most corrupt
institutions in the country.

"The courts have been one of the government institutions that
have given rise to the most complaints from the public. The
complaints are still coming in thick and fast," Masdar Farid
Mas'udi of the National Ombudsman Commission (KON) told The
Jakarta Post on Saturday.

The recently published Asian Development Bank (ADB)'s
Government Assessment Report 2005-Indonesia states that almost 36
percent of the complaints received by the KON in its first year
of operation were related to judicial corruption.

The KON was established on March 20, 2000, based on
Presidential Decree No.44/2000 for the purpose of monitoring the
performance of state institutions in providing services to the
public.

According to the report, the rampant corruption in the
country's judicial system involves both judges, the ultimate
decision makers in the judicial system, and clerks. Inadequate
funding is often cited as the main excuse.

The multinational lender said that Indonesia spent only
around 0.3 percent of its annual state budget on funding the
country's more than 700 courts, 2,910 judges and 10,000 clerks.
Many other countries typically devoted about 2 percent of their
budgetary spending to the courts.

"It is normal for officials of the courts to demand illicit
payments to expedite the hearing and adjudication of cases. More
worrisome for the cause of justice is the extent of corruption
that affects the decisions of the court," the ADB report said.

The country's weak and corrupt judicial system has been one of
the main factors seen to be hampering badly needed new investment
in the country.

A young lawyer who requested anonymity confirmed the findings
and said that the rampant corruption involved lawyers,
prosecutors, and court clerks, collectively known as the "court
mafia".

"There are several modes of corruption involving the judges. I
know of several famous lawyers who pay monthly allowances to a
number of judges in the administrative courts," the lawyer told
the Post.

He said there were two typical ways in which judges were
bribed. First was to negotiate the verdict, or what lawyers
called a "bombing" or "auction", while the second most common way
was to give the judges gifts after winning the case.

The ADB report also mentioned other practices such as the
paying off of a court president to influence the selection of
the judges who would hear a case. The payoff could take the form,
for example, of a payment toward the judge's son's or daughter's
wedding or for the purchase of a car or a house.

The young lawyer also shared his experiences of paying off
clerks to get legal documentation for his client.

"If I want to get a document declaring that your clients is
not involved in a trial process, which is really needed by
companies, I have to pay them Rp 500,000 for each document. This
is a non-negotiable fee," he said.

He said that both the judges and clerks then shared the
illicit money with other officials working in the court system.

A clerk in the South Jakarta District Court denied the
allegations, arguing that the clerks' duties were only to support
the work of the judges and that therefore they had no power to
influence decisions.

Masdar suggested that effective monitoring should be conducted
by the Supreme Court or a Judicial Commission to stop the rampant
bribery and that the public should report all incidences of
illegal conduct in the courts. (006)