Graft and bureaucrats

Graft and bureaucrats

From Bisnis Indonesia

It is interesting to note that the statement of Sofian
Effendi, former secretary-general of the Civil Servants Corps and
ex-head of the State Administrative Reform, now rector of Gajah
Mada University, that the present government must work extra hard
to eradicate corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN) within the
bureaucracy and strive for clean governance.

Personally, I think the elimination of KKN and the creation of
clean governance are no simple thing, because the New Order
regime, with its bureaucratic system that ignored public service,
fostered a breeding ground for graft in nearly all offices of the
central government and regional administrations.

The effort to create clean government agencies, therefore,
should unnecessarily depend on the policy laid down by the Office
of the State Minister for Administrative Reform. Other state
agencies should follow up with further measures in supervisory,
administrative, institutional and personnel fields.

The field of supervision over the use of public funds is
especially important, because the projects tendered by ministries
are not transparent, thus causing deviations in expenditure. The
procurement of goods in the directorate general of contagious
disease eradication, ministry of health, for instance, has
inflicted a Rp 7 billion loss on the state.

The mentality of the apparatus remains difficult to deal with.
Under unfavorable socio-economic and political conditions today,
supervision has slackened. This again involves the political will
of law enforcement authorities, whether they have the courage to
arrest officials suspected of committing KKN and, when evidence
is found, bring them to trial.

VELERY E. SETIAWAN

Bengkulu