Businessmen ready to reveal bribery cases

Businessmen ready to reveal bribery cases

BANDUNG, West Java (JP): Chairman of the Association of
Indonesian Businessmen (APINDO) Hadi Suratno says the association
is ready to disclose documented cases of bribery, provided that
the government guarantees the anonymity of victims.

"We have records of bribery cases from many companies, but we
are not going to disclose them because the extorted businessmen
might be threatened by certain elements," he told The Jakarta
Post after attending the opening of an Indonesia-Japan seminar on
industrial relations here yesterday.

Hadi was responding to a statement made by Minister of
Manpower Abdul Latief on Tuesday in which he asked businesses to
inform him of any illegal government impositions.

Latief denied reports that bribery was common among government
officials, whose demands, the report added, often prevented
businessmen from raising the salaries of their workers.

"No Ministry of Manpower officials have been found guilty of
taking bribes from businessmen. Any official involved in such a
case would be punished," the minister said.

Latief said he had received many reports of corruption
involving tens of millions of rupiahs and government officials,
but all were proven groundless.

Many labor activists believe that the daily minimum wage
level, low compared to other ASEAN countries, could be raised
substantially higher if the government were to eradicate
"invisible costs".

Bomer Pasaribu, the secretary general of the All Indonesian
Workers Union (SPSI), said that the authorities should push
these costs down as low as possible for the benefit of the
workers.

"If the invisible costs, which can amount to as much as 30
percent of total costs, are transferred to labor costs, the
condition of workers will certainly improve," he said.

Pasaribu added that the World Bank has repeatedly criticized
Indonesia for its high cost economy resulting from
irregularities, corruption and leakages in its development
budget.

"Therefore, all corruption and bribery should be wiped out, or
reduced to a minimum, to allow workers to enjoy the fruits of
national development," Pasaribu said.

Meanwhile Kenichi Kuroda, marketing manager of PT Eastemtex, a
textile company in Tangerang, said that his company had never
bribed any officials or military officers since its establishment
in 1974.

"I have worked in the company for 20 years and nobody has
extorted money from us," he said. He added that his company also
has encountered no problems in dealing with the bureaucracy.

"The authorities should launch an all-out war against
corruption if they want to clean up government," he said. (rms)