Corruption keeps money from wage earners: Official

Corruption keeps money from wage earners: Official

JAKARTA (JP): A senior government official called for a
nationwide campaign to stop the high-cost economy, which he
blamed for employers' inability to raise their workers' wages.

Yudo Swasono, chief of the research and development planning
unit at the Ministry of Manpower, said most employers are facing
difficulties in increasing their workers' wages because they have
to pay "extra costs." He said the business climate was not
conducive to better labor conditions.

"Employers have unofficially been financing the security
authorities, government officers from the low to high levels,
labor activists, law enforcers, political parties and bank
officers for the sake of their businesses' survival. All this
expenditure has made them unable to improve the labor
conditions," he told The Jakarta Post here on Wednesday.

He said that based on a recent survey conducted by the
Manpower Ministry of numerous companies in major cities in
Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi and Irian Jaya, the high-cost economy
takes the form of bribes, illegal and legal levies and service
money for the government apparatus and security authorities.

He said that according to the survey, illegal levies, bribes
and collusion were prevalent throughout administrative
bureaucracies, from local administrations to central government
agencies. He added that "to our conclusions, (it has) a lot to do
with the melu handar beni culture (sense of possession) among
security authorities and the government apparatus."

He said that servicemen deployed in villages have frequently
extorted companies for feeling to have contributed security
services to their operations.

Yudo, also a labor economist, said the military and police
leadership should take stern measures against servicemen found
guilty of extorting businessmen.

"Employers should place warnings on their gates about illegal
levies and they should file a report when facing such cases," he
said.

Yudo also said President Abdurrahman Wahid should show his
commitment to curbing the corruption culture in the bureaucracy
by phasing out all unnecessary legal levies which overburden
companies.

"The government must cleanse the corrupt mentality among
public servants while the wages of low ranking officers should be
raised and stern actions should be taken against corrupt
officials," he said.

He added that the government should increase the wages of low-
echelon civil servants and servicemen by at least 100 percent to
improve their social welfare.

He predicted that the corrupt culture has so permeated all
layers of society and that the nation will need at least 60 years
to completely recover.

Yudo said that regarding the regional minimum wage, the
government was in a difficult position since workers demanded a
hike of at least 50 percent while employers proposed an 18.5
percent maximum increase.

He said that management will face financial difficulties in
meeting worker demands as long as the high-cost economy
continues. "Stability at home may be at risk if workers stage a
national strike because the government failed to meet their
demands," he said.

He acknowledged that most workers have been poorly paid
because of the high-cost economy and the prolonged monetary
crisis. He said the labor conditions were getting worse due to
the high employment rate.

He said the government will likely adopt the provinces'
proposed wage increase of an average 25 percent in hopes that
both employers and workers accept the poor economic conditions.
(rms)