Government should limit gifts to officials: Scholar

Government should limit gifts to officials: Scholar

JAKARTA (JP): A scholar suggested yesterday that the
government renew its anticorruption campaign by regulating the
maximum worth of "gifts" that a government official can accept
from businesspeople.

Ryaas Rasyid, the rector of the state-run Institute of State
Administration, said the only way possible to start a national
drive against bribery was to limit the amount of money or the
value of a gift that an official could take from the business
community.

"This is the easiest way of detecting bribery," Ryaas told
reporters after the graduation of the school's 549 students here
yesterday.

"For instance, the decree could stipulate that a government
official could only take cash or a gift worth up to Rp 100,000
(US$27.6) from a businessman," he said. "If the official received
more than Rp 100,000, he or she would have to hand it over to the
state."

Some countries, including the United States, have rules
limiting the value of gifts given their officials or heads of
state. Neighboring country Singapore places even greater
restrictions on its officials.

Premjith Sadasivan, the first secretary to the Singaporean
Embassy, told The Jakarta Post his government did not allow
government officials to receive gifts from businessmen.

"Our law prohibits government officials from accepting
anything from businesspeople," he said.

In the oath that Indonesian government officials take when
they assume office, there is already a stipulation restricting
them from receiving anything from anyone. In practice, however,
bribery has been considered as among the most rampant social ills
here.

Bribery

Ryaas conceded that bribery was a chronic problem affecting
all layers of Indonesian society, and was hard to combat. Clear
stipulations of the amount of gifts an official may take could
serve as a control mechanism and help ensure public
accountability, he said.

The issue on bribery practices was recently raised by former
deputy governor of the state military think tank, the National
Resilience Institute, Sayidiman Suryohadiprojo.

Addressing a seminar on the discord between indigenous and
nonindigenous people here Tuesday, Sayidiman said nonindigenous
businessmen were well known for the practice of oiling their
businesses by paying bribes.

"Nonindigenous businessmen know precisely whether a government
official is clean from bribery or not. And they also know how
much money they have to spend to bribe officials for projects
they are pursuing," Sayidiman said.

The Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy
Ltd. issued earlier this year a report on a survey which named
Indonesia as the most corrupt country in Asia. The same poor
rating was also given to Indonesia last year.

The government has recently claimed that there had been a
decline in the number of reported corruption cases over the past
years, but conceded it could be due to the increasingly
sophisticated mode of the practice.

There were 325 reported cases in the 1994/1995 fiscal year
causing a financial loss of "Rp 1 trillion and some billions",
409 cases in 1995/1996 causing a Rp 208 billion (US$63 million)
loss and 274 cases in 1996/1997 resulting in a loss of Rp 377
billion to the state.

In the 1997/1998 fiscal year, as of last September, the number
of reported corruption cases has reached 234, causing the state a
Rp 77 billion loss.

Ryaas called on prospective civil servants to mentally prepare
themselves against bribery. "A government official should realize
that being a civil servant would not make him or her wealthy," he
said. (imn)