Acute snags in driver's license process needs reform

By K. Basrie

JAKARTA (JP): There's a joke among police-beat reporters about police cadets: Most parents of police cadets always pray for the same thing -- that their sons will be assigned to the driver's license service bureau.

The joke might be untrue, but it is no longer a secret among police officers that working at the service bureau is a guaranteed way of getting wealthy.

It is easy to spot officials and civil servants at the bureau in Jakarta, without fear, asking for bribes from scalpers and applicants for a smooth and speedy procedure.

Applicants frequently end up paying twice to five times the official rate of Rp 62,500, which includes Rp 52,500 for application forms and Rp 10,000 for insurance.

The "extra charges" sometimes please well-to-do applicants who hate waiting and queuing, with some of them not knowing how to drive properly.

However, even poor applicants, such as job seekers and truck drivers, sometimes have no way of avoiding the horrible procedures, which have almost become a tradition at driver's license bureaus all over the country.

Although there are large signs at the entrance gates of the license offices warning applicants not to deal with scalpers, they are essentially meaningless, even to the officials.

Applicants who choose to heed the warning and ignore the gestures from officers asking for grease money should be extra patient and be prepared to be ignored.

Although one might wind up saving thousands of rupiah if they decide to pay the bribes alone, which involves paying extra "fees" at every booth, they will have to wait much longer than those who use the "third party" service.

Leaders of the police force have vowed many times to rid the area of crooked officers and greedy scalpers.

At Jakarta's license bureau, which receives the largest number of applicants, police conducted a raid on dozens of male and female scalpers last year. A few weeks later, the same faces appeared again at the bureau.

New office

The newly opened office of the Jakarta license bureau on Jl. Daan Mogot in West Jakarta is also designed to help limit the operations of brokers and "bad" officers.

"I dispatch almost one-third of my 200 personnel here to drive out scalpers and observe the on-duty officers," the head of the section, Maj. Velino, said last week.

However, their presence is apparently not a guarantee to free the service from brokers. Dozens of scalpers could still be found offering a speedy service to people at the license bureau. Although they do not insist on people using their services, their presence gives a bad image to the police force as a whole, due to the scalpers' conspiracy with the crooked officers and civilian personnel at the bureau.

Hundreds of other scalpers open services in their homes.

"The police are never serious about kicking us out because their earnings also depend on us," said a senior scalper.

When asked where these extra earinings went, both government employees and scalpers replied that the illegal fees were equally distributed among officials in charge at different booths. According to most of the scalpers, who all refused to be named, almost 80 percent of the extra fees collected from applicants are handed out to officers and civilian personnel in this manner.

"How could we satisfy our customers if they have to face the same complicated procedures and waste their time here like those faced by the 'ordinary' applicants?" said a scalper. "That's why we need extra money to bribe different officers so that they could help speed up the process of our customers' documents," he added.

However, the uniformed and plainclothes officers also have their own ways of finding their own customers, in order to earn more money.

A young applicant, Taufik from Tangerang, said he paid Rp 190,000, far above the normal fee of Rp 62,500, to a female sergeant major for a license allowing him to drive passenger cars or other light vehicles (locally called SIM A).

"I didn't have to take any tests, practice driving, or go through tiresome procedures. All I had to do was simply wait for her to call me, have my picture taken and wait for my license to be printed," Taufik told the Post.

He said the whole process took about two hours, compared to a minimum of four hours that most ordinary applicants have to endure.

Big money

Of course, the female sergeant dealt with more than one applicant that day and was not the only officer illegally taking extra money from the people.

One could only imagine how much money is contributed to the scalpers and corrupt officers every day if only half of the average 1,500 applicants per day process their licenses in accordance with the procedures.

"It's not so easy to control all my officers and personnel and, furthermore, crooked officers can be found at any institutions," Velino said, when asked about the corrupt practices.

Due to the bribery system, applicants who follow the original rules are often frustrated over the improper attitude of the officers, who give priority to documents attached with extra rupiah and intentionally delay those without money.

Similar situations can also found at other police driver's license bureaus, in particular those located in big cities, where crooked officers and scalpers are inspired by public demand for speedy services.

A senior police officer once said the corrupt system was deliberately needed to collect extra money to help finance the operation of other bureaus in the police force, which for many years has received only small portions of the state budget.

A large portion of the illegal money is also contributed to groups in the Armed Forces.

In light of these problems, the public is calling for significant improvement in the licensing service.

If the police were capable of setting up special rapid reaction units for handling crimes and traffic problems, they should also be able to establish a more rapid process in the licensing procedures.

In order to accomplish this, the police force should also improve the employee's salaries, deploy disciplined military provost officers and hire independent personnel to control the on-duty personnel.