Government assures WB over its fight against corruption

JAKARTA (JP): The government reiterated to the World Bank yesterday its commitment to root out corruption, collusion and nepotistic practices in the country.

"The government will continue to address these problems through various policy reforms, but it is now time to return to the broader issue of how to formulate a strategy for creating an environment in which KKN cannot survive," Coordinating Minister for Economy, Finance and Industry Ginandjar Kartasasmita said in a letter dated yesterday to the bank's country director, Dennis de Tray, which was made available to The Jakarta Post.

KKN is the Indonesian abbreviation for corruption, collusion and nepotism.

Ginandjar noted in his letter that Coordinating Minister for Development Supervision and State Administrative Reforms Hartarto Sastrosoenarto had begun to root out corruption, collusion and nepotism in the bureaucracy.

"I would be grateful if the World Bank would assist Minister Hartarto and the government as we are seeking ways of curbing KKN practices once and for all," Ginandjar said.

Dow Jones quoted a World Bank's official here as confirming yesterday that De Tray would return to the bank's headquarters in Washington next January.

Bondan Winarno, external affairs consultant at the World Bank in Jakarta, said the post of Indonesian director is now being advertised.

He said De Tray would take up a senior position in Washington.

De Tray rejected this week the allegations that some 20 percent of money earmarked for bank projects in the country had been siphoned off fraudulently, although he said corruption was a problem.

The Asian Wall Street Journal, citing a World Bank internal memorandum, said Monday that Indonesian officials were believed to have taken more than 20 percent of project money.

De Tray said the extent of the corruption had never been quantified, although he did not deny there were problems of corruption.

Present in Indonesia since 1966, the World Bank has been sharply criticized for not blowing the whistle on the country's economic mismanagement and frail banking system before they were highlighted in the crisis that broke with Thailand's July 1997 devaluation of the baht. (jsk)