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."