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.