Efforts to establish clean, respected government

Efforts to establish clean, respected government

By Prijono Tjiptoherijanto

JAKARTA (JP): In order to maintain the momentum of our nation's development it is imperative to create an honest and well-respected administration. Experts, both foreign and domestic, say that the quality of public service rendered by our state bureaucracy remains a far cry from optimal. The main source of the problem is the state officials themselves. Their ability to work as servants of the populace has fallen behind the society's demands and expectations, which keep on expanding and increasing in intensity.

The weakness in the bureaucracy is the result of the shortcomings in the process of instilling a sense of ethics, honesty and responsibility in civil servants. This process starts at a planning stage and ends with the monitoring stage.

Recruitment of civil servants based solely on merits and skills is not yet a reality. The problem is aggravated by a career development system that has yet to be structured. Both of these problems result in the imperfection of the process of recruiting and keeping civil servants in their profession. As a consequence, the bureaucracy is not an attractive choice for university graduates. The private sector is far more enticing to them. Therefore, only the second best are ever interested in becoming civil servants. Not infrequently, the third or maybe the fourth best are the only applicants for posts in the state's bureaucracy.

The rewards of working for the government are not attractive enough to university graduates. One look at the table below will tell us how low the incomes of government employees are when compared with the incomes of people working in the private sectors. Only in Singapore -- a country with a very strong and reliable administration -- do those working in the public sector receive higher salaries than those working in the private sector. What with the low inflation rates and high per capita income, there is no reason to doubt that Singapore's civil servants enjoy a much better living standard than civil servants in other ASEAN countries.

Indonesia, with the lowest per capita income in the region and high inflation rates, shows a huge gap between the incomes in public and private sectors. Incomes earned by civil servants here are just one quarter, or at the best, one third, of what employees of private companies receive. Therefore, it is no surprise that becoming a civil servant is not an aspiration of the best breed of university graduates. Lack of career opportunities adds to the unattractiveness of working for the government.

As far as a control mechanism is concerned, an honest and respected bureaucracy can only be attained if the society is allowed to enforce the accountability of government policies. Only with transparency and the willingness to let itself be scrutinized by the public can the state bureaucracy be improved.

Clearly, the requirements for honest civil servants involve stringent selection and recruitment processes, a clear mechanism for career development, and a control system that is fully ac countable.

However, it is also necessary to take into account external factors that affect these three action plans. Economic growth is required so that the per capita income can be further increased. Economic stability, as indicated by low inflation rates, should be maintained so that the public's buying power does not wane. Parallel with the above actions, the disparity between the incomes in the public sector and those in the private sector should be reduced. Without these additional efforts, any talk of improving the bureaucracy will be nothing more than rhetoric. It is very hard to welcome salary increases if the prices have been going up and the buying power has already diminished.

On top of this, any increase in the civil servants' salaries will mean very little if their counterparts in the private sector receive substantial increases in their wages twice yearly -- not to mention their bonuses and other benefits. The income gap will continue to haunt our administration and it will be almost impossible to improve the quality of our bureaucracy.

The writer is a deputy chairman at the State Administration Institute.

Window: Incomes earned by civil servants here are just one quarter, or at the best, one third, of what employees of private companies receive. Therefore, it is no surprise that becoming a civil servant is not an aspiration of the best breed of university graduates.