Acute snags in driver's license process needs reform

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.