Anti-corruption drive struggles for efficacy

JAKARTA (JP): Attorney General Singgih conceded yesterday that the government's anti-corruption drive will only be effective once coordination among related institutions is improved.

"It is very difficult to net the big guys," Singgih told participants at a law enforcement seminar.

Singgih said better coordination between government agencies, courts, prosecutors and the police is essential to an effective campaign.

He said that officials are generally reluctant to reveal to any corrupt elements in their offices.

"Providing information is a burden for them," he said. "In fact they should realize that it is necessary to help us in our efforts."

The lack of coordination between the judiciary and ministries to expose corruption has also been cited as a stumbling block, as the Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes, A. Soetomo, mentioned in March.

At that time Soetomo disclosed that the Ministry of Home Affairs was the most tainted, with 106 cases of corruption recorded last year.

According to Soetomo, of the embezzled Rp 1.1 trillion in state money, only Rp 33 billion has been recovered.

Singgih was responding to a participant's question on how the Attorney General handles widespread nepotism and collusion among bureaucrats.

Singgih declined to comment on the enforcement of the 1980 regulation which prohibits officials from running businesses.

The business affairs of officials and their children has been the subject of much debate this month, with legislators urging the Attorney General's Office to better enforce the regulation. The State Minister of Administrative Reform (T.B. Silalahi) is seeing to that," Singgih said.

Silalahi said his office has almost completed reviewing the rarely-enforced regulation.

Singgih also said that corruption involving government officials was one of the issues raised at last year's World Ministerial Conference on Organized Transnational Crime in Napoli, Italy, where Indonesia also participated.

The conference noted that transnational crimes have been facilitated by the easy bribery of government officials.

"Crimes like drug trafficking and money laundering easily enter a country if the government officials and law enforcers are corrupt," he said. (anr)