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.