City shrugs off corruption survey
Damar Harsanto and Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Jakarta Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo dismissed on Thursday a survey carried out by Transparency International Indonesia (TII), in which Jakarta topped the list of most corrupt cities, and called it unreasonable.
"It is not reasonable to compare Jakarta with other smaller cities in the country," Fauzi was quoted as saying by city spokesman Catur Laswanto.
Fauzi argued that because 80 percent of money that circulates in the country goes through Jakarta, it would be unfair to compare the capital with other cities with a far smaller percent of business transactions.
He claimed that if the survey had used the same yardstick to measure Jakarta against other small cities, the city would certainly be the least corrupt.
"The TII survey needs to consider other aspects, such as investment values in respective cities, budget allocation and the number of companies operating in those cities," he said.
TII on Wednesday revealed the results of a corruption survey in 21 provinces, municipalities and regencies, which showed that Jakarta was the most corrupt city in the country, followed by Surabaya, Medan, Semarang and Batam regency.
It also placed the small town of Bondowoso in East Java as the cleanest region, followed by Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan, Makassar in South Sulawesi, and Cilegon in Banten province.
Councillors, however, welcomed the survey and urged both the local administration and the City Council to view the survey's results as valuable information for self-correction.
Secretary to the Prosperous and Justice Party (PKS) faction in the City Council Selamat Nurdin said that his faction appreciated any group that contributed to fighting corruption.
"With the information, we need to work harder in fighting against corruption. Relevant agencies like the City Audit Body (Bawasda) needs to follow up on such information," Nurdin told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
He also pointed out that the survey was valuable because allegations of unrelenting corruption had always been dismissed by officials as mere rumors among the public.
Therefore, Nurdin added, the survey should become a strong indication that rampant corruption was continuing unabated in the city -- both within the administration and within the Council.
"I hope the survey will encourage legal enforcers to find and prosecute corrupt people," he stated.
Similarly, the Council's deputy speaker Maringan Pangaribuan said that he was not surprised by the survey, because it was only a confirmation of unconfirmed reports on corruption.
He believed that rampant corruption still occurred in nearly all agencies under the city administration, particularly due to the failure of bureaucratic reforms.
"The bureaucracy has not been touched by the reform process. Therefore, many corruption cases will not be discovered. The Council will encourage the administration to carry out serious bureaucratic reform," he added.
Maringan admitted that corruption also involved many councillors, but stressed that the frequency was not comparable to the corruption within the administration.