Hiring of foreign consultants by city criticized
Hiring of foreign consultants by city criticized
JAKARTA (JP): The decision to hire American consultants to
improve the administration's public services has drawn strong
criticism from several sources.
Head of the Indonesian Consumers Protection Foundation, Tini
Hadad, said yesterday that she doubts the policy will improve
services at all.
She said that the main cause of bad services in the city
offices is non-technical aspects, particularly the corrupt
officials.
"I think the step will be useless if the main cause of the
problem is not touched," Tini told The Jakarta Post.
She said the municipality must be honest if it intends to
improve its services to the public. The executives should admit
that there is something wrong with the employees and take firm
action against the corrupt ones, even if they are high ranking
officials, she said.
Sociologist Kastorius Sinaga, echoed her opinion, saying that
the main problems are the corrupt officials and the poor
enforcement of regulations.
He said the administration has never implemented the
regulations consistently, and low pay has made the staffers
corrupt by encouraging them to impose illegal levies on those
asking for services.
Many people say the imposition of illegal levies at government
offices has become "a culture" as efforts to eliminate the
practices are usually fruitless.
"It is true that such behavior has become a custom and this is
motivated by the prevailing culture. The municipality should
tighten its control by using existing laws to punish corrupt
officials," he said.
The municipality has been hiring consultants from the United
States since early this year to improve the city's services.
The deputy governor for government affairs, Idroes, said the
consultants are reviewing the current service system which is
said to be complicated.
The consultants are expected to provide the administration
with a better, simpler, quicker and cheaper system, Idroes said.
The consultants are reviewing the systems currently applied in
various offices in the city administration.
Meanwhile, the deputy governor for economic affairs and
development, TB. M. Rais, said that illegal levies are the
excesses of procedure which the administration plans to simplify.
The administration also imposes legal levies based on
gubernatorial decrees in an effort to get local revenues.
Rais said it is impossible to eliminate all of the regulations
because they are formed to make users pay for something they use.
Rais was commenting on the government's campaign to eliminate
gubernatorial decrees, which are believed to cause the people
economic hardship. (yns)