Govt to fire corrupt bureaucrats
Govt to fire corrupt bureaucrats
Rendi A. Witular, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government is seeking a way to end lifetime guarantee
employment by revising the public servants law, with the aim of
curbing corruption.
The long chain of bureaucracy at present has made it difficult
for the government to discharge civil servants who are proven
guilty of corruption, including asking for illegal fees. Illegal
fees within the bureaucracy have played a large part in the
generation of a high-cost economy.
State Minister of Administrative Reforms Taufik Effendi said
by revising Law No. 43/1999 on public servants, the government
would be able to speed up the process of discharging public
servants found guilty of corruption.
"The government will cut the process so that corrupt public
servants can be discharged at once," he said on Monday.
The law stipulates that a civil servant can only be discharged
if he or she commits treason, is convicted by a court of criminal
charges or of violating their pledge to the state. Other
violations are only subject to administrative punishments.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has pledged since taking
power to fight corruption. Six months have passed, yet the public
has seen little improvement in the bureaucracy.
Subdistrict and immigration offices, police stations and
regional religious affairs agencies nationwide remain places
where public officials extort money from consumers in the form of
illegal fees.
Observers have said that corruption also stemmed from civil
servants' low salaries and red tape at government offices.
Taufik said to boost the country's economic competitiveness
and efficiency, problems in the bureaucracy needed to be
addressed immediately.
To simplify the bureaucracy and eradicate illegal fees, the
government plans to issue guidelines for the issuance of
documents and licenses by public servants.
The guidelines will set out the requirements for each
document, as well as the cost and time period for completion.
Civil servants who fail to comply with the guidelines will be
punished.
"This system is to encourage them to work harder and more
seriously, as well as to prevent them from collecting illegal
fees," said Taufik.
According to Taufik, some 275 public service offices are able
to process birth, death and marriage documents.
The guidelines as well as the draft revision of the public
servants law are expected to be completed this year and will come
into effect next year.
At present, Taufik's office is seeking input from ministries,
government agencies and provincial administrations on the
guidelines.
In the meantime, Taufik suggested that the public report
corrupt practices allegedly committed by civil servants to PO BOX
5000 or directly to his office.
Taufik claimed the PO BOX system was an effective way to
follow up corruption reports from the public, since 60 percent of
the reports had been addressed by his officials or other law
enforcers.
The system was first applied by former president Soeharto in
the mid-1980s to help stamp out corruption within the government.
However, the effectiveness of the system was never proven since
none of the civil servants reported via the system were brought
to justice, or even discharged.