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