Governance reform key to fighting corruption: ADB

Governance reform key to fighting corruption: ADB

Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Amid growing public discontent over the lack of progress in
punishing those involved in corruption, a new study says that
because corruption is largely systemic, or institutionalized, the
key to solving the problem is to reform the system and improve
governance.

While the report by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank
(ADB) does not discuss the effectiveness of law enforcement as
the weapon of choice by successive governments since 1998 in
fighting corruption, it says law enforcement agencies and the
judiciary are among the state institutions most prone to
corruption, and thus must be the first to be reformed.

Indonesia, according to the Country Governance Assessment
Report due to be released on Friday, has an unfinished and
somewhat daunting reform agenda.

The report underlines the need to reform the regulatory
system, the management of public finances, the civil service, the
police, the Attorney General's Office and the judiciary.

"The widespread perception of systemic corruption afflicting
public services is another reason for continuing and accelerating
reforms," it says.

The grim implication of the report, while not stated, is
clear: no amount of law enforcement will be sufficient to stop
corruption as long as the system itself allows or even encourages
corruption in the various state institutions.

The report's conclusion is also clear: completely overhaul the
civil service and reform the police, the Attorney General's
Office and the judiciary.

Almost seven years since the downfall of the corrupt Soeharto
regime, Indonesia seems nowhere near to eradicating corruption.
There is even the growing feeling that corruption has become even
more widespread than before, in spite of announced wars against
corruption by four successive presidents since 1998.

This feeling is dangerous because it could lead to public
apathy toward the next official declaration of yet another war on
corruption. While many people have been investigated and tried in
court for corruption, convictions have been few and far between.
Impunity remains the rule rather than the exception.

HS Dillon, executive director of Partnership Governance Reform
in Indonesia, gave his personal endorsement of the ADB report,
which he described as being "close to our heart".

"It is in line with our motto of 'pressure from without,
capacity from within,'" he said during a discussion at Kompas
daily newspaper earlier this week.

The ADB report says Indonesia "is still far from having a
fully developed democracy with an administration and judiciary
ruled by law, and with a market economy based on open and fair
competition".

"Indonesia's governance system previously operated under a
regime in which state institutions neglected good governance and
the rule of law, where the state managed essential parts of the
corporate sector and where corruption was allowed to rule over
common interests."

The 125-page report looks at specific governance sectors where
reform is mandated, including legislation, the regulatory
framework and policy making process, the management of state
finances, the civil service and the implications of
decentralization, law enforcement agencies, the judiciary and the
courts.

The report reserves its harshest words for the civil service,
the National Police and the judiciary for their systemic
corruption. It says that civil service management practices
"nurture and multiply corruption", that corruption is "widespread
and institutionalized" in the police force, and that there is
"institutionalized and widespread corruption in the judiciary".

If reforming these institution seems like a gigantic task, at
least Indonesia is heading in the right direction, Staffan
Synnerstrom of the ADB and one of the authors of the study said
during the discussion at Kompas.

Synnerstrom, who helped in governance reforms for Eastern
European countries in the 1990s, said it took 15 years for Poland
and many other countries in the region to reform their civil
service and their public finance management.

"It is a long process," he said.

The ADB report, alluding to the experiences of other countries
in transition, says that such "transformation needs time, strong
commitment, persistent efforts and determined leadership."