Ibnu's new system to prevent corruption

Ibnu's new system to prevent corruption

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

A systematic approach to fight nepotism, collusion and other
forms of corruption in this country that has been employed by
Sleman regent Ibnu Subiyanto is evidence that for some people,
the will to combat society's most pervasive cancer is not dead
yet.

Fully aware that corruption can only be eradicated through a
clean government and that such governance can only materialize if
it is put in the hands of civil servants with real integrity,
Ibnu embarked on a transparent, nepotism-free, collusion-free
recruitment system in Sleman regency in Yogyakarta.

An advertisement offering vacancies for board of directors
positions at the regency's tap water company PDAM appeared
recently in a nation-wide newspaper indicated just such a
willingness to find the right person for the job based on merit,
not family connections.

Interestingly, the ad also requires the applicants to submit
with their application letters, a draft of their own version for
PDAM's vision and mission.

"Actually this is not the first time that we put job vacancies
in a national newspaper. We have done the same thing strategic
posts. And everyone is welcome to apply, not just Sleman
residents," Ibnu told The Jakarta Post, noting that a number of
people had been hired using the same procedure.

Ibnu said that such a recruitment system was important to win
the public trust. He believes that only a fair and transparent
recruitment can yield the most competent candidates for key
positions in his regency.

In that way, he said, hopefully it would also help create
clean government officials that would further lead to the
creation of a clean government, he said.

"Clean, transparent recruitment will result in highly
qualified people of integrity who don't have any strings attached
that can prevent them from working professionally. It doesn't
matter for me even if the selection results in candidates that
may be my political rivals," he said.

He added that the posts at PDAM were considered crucial and
required very competent people because water was extremely
important to everyone.

What was of no less importance, he said, was that PDAM had
huge debts to deal with, as a result of the past administration's
policy, which saw it get many foreign loans beyond its real need
and capability to repay it.

"The debt has reached up to Rp 11 billion this year. And we
have to pay it soon. So, what we need for the company at present
is clean officials who have the competence to manage PDAM to
enable them to repay that debt. Otherwise, we will never be able
to develop the company regardless of its strategic position,"
Ibnu said.

Elected as Sleman regent in 2000, Ibnu's main concern was in
the regency's budgetary system, especially regarding its
efficiency and effectiveness, which may have something to do with
his educational background as an accountant.

Sleman has now begun to implement a program called
performance-based budgeting, which is still in an introductory
stage in other regencies or municipalities following the issuance
of Law No 22/1999 on regional autonomy and Government Regulation
No 104-110/2000 on regional government.

With such a budgetary system, which is based on actual need as
opposed to certain types of money politics popular in the New
Order Era and continuing in many places unabated, all the
spending can be monitored and irregularities prevented.

"We do feel that such a model limits corruption because
everything is spent transparently and based only on a proposed,
agreed budget," Head of Sleman's Public Relations Department
Sudarningsih told The Post.

Efforts to create a clean government and fight against
corruption that has become so entrenched in this country cannot
be done through legal approaches, but a systematic approach
instead.

The systems should foolproof, especially the organizational
and financial systems in the budget, he said while adding that
such a method had to be established and implemented.

"And this cannot just be talked about. It has to be
implemented through concrete actions. I think this is basically
what I'm trying to do. And I started it myself. By making myself
clean, I will not have be burdened in doing these things," said
Ibnu who has just been appointed head of the financial controller
agency (BPK) of the Indonesian Football Association (PSSI).

His efforts apparently have already produced fruit.

Sleman has won a Rp 2.5 billion grant from the Building
Institutions for Good Governance (BIGG) program financed by the
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to
help the regency further develop the performance-based budget and
build an e-government networking system.

With the grant, which will be disbursed next year in the form
of technical assistance and software design and infrastructure,
Sleman is scheduled to have the e-government system up and
running by 2005.

When that time comes, Sleman would probably be the first
regency in the country in which everyone potentially has access
to follow all the processes and procedures of how the
government's budget is prepared and spent by browsing the
computer-based information system.

"That way, transparency will be best maintained," said Ibnu,
adding that the program would only be extended to other regions
when it had been considered a success in Sleman.

Once the systems were established in the regency's government,
he said, even the regent would not be able to act just on his or
her own favors but would be forced to follow the system.

"That's why I believe more in a system rather than in legal
approaches in dealing with corruption. You can use a legal
approach, of course, but it may be a total resistance from your
staff that you will find. And that will not be effective."

Ibnu also said that it was for the same reason that he
publicly announced to his staff that he still could tolerate a
maximum of a 5 percent mark-up in government budgeting until
2004, arguing that zero corruption would need years to achieve.

"In the last couple of years we've cut the corruption level
from some 20 percent of the total prone-to-corruption budget of
some Rp 100 billion in 2000 to 10 percent in 2001. Hopefully, we
will be able to further cut it down to 5 percent by the end of
2004.

"But to reach the zero corruption, I will need much more,
especially because it deals with a much larger number of
employees at all the lower levels," he said.

Born in Yogyakarta on March 3, 1950, Ibnu never dreamt of
becoming Sleman's leader. He said that the position had always
been in the hands of aristocrats or bureaucrats.

Since graduating from Gadjah Mada University's School of
Economics with a degree in accounting in 1980, Ibnu has worked in
various professions including journalism, accounting, auditing
and as lecturer at Yogyakarta's STIE YKPN economic college as an
assigned civil servant. He was director of STIE YKPN until 1994.

"I just want to be remembered as a good, honest and devoted
regent when I am no longer in the position. I want to be judged
by my deeds, not by people's opinions."

Ibnu married Sri Maryati in December 1980 and they have has
two sons.