Illegal fees nurtured to keep state running

Rendi A. Witular and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A senior official at the Ministry of Finance once said that illegal fees paid by the public for services at governmental offices helped keep the underfunded bureaucracy running.

Most of the country's five million public servants, especially middle and high-ranking officials, were paid too little and thus could only make ends meet thanks to the illegal fees, the official argued.

Experts, meanwhile, say the six-month-old administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been facing active resistance from all levels of the bureaucracy in its attempt to provide better public services and eliminate corrupt practices in government.

"President Susilo is having problems in improving public services, as none of his directives to combat corruption have been carried out seriously," said Transparency International (TI) Indonesia secretary-general Emmy Havild.

Emmy said no Cabinet ministers, police, the military or regional administration leaders had shown any enthusiasm in implementing the President's anticorruption campaign.

She suggested Susilo appoint a special secretary tasked with monitoring ministers and all state officials and their actions against corruption, as the Kenyan government had done.

"The President's instructions about actions against corruption are not clear. He said that he would directly lead the fight, but I am not sure that he can do that given his many other tasks; he needs special assistance," she said.

Chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Taufiqurahman Ruki has also expressed his disappointment about the reluctance of ministers and state officials to implement the President's anticorruption policy.

Taufiqurahman has said only one ministry had thus far shown any seriousness in combating corruption by forming a special division to eradicate internal graft. Strangely, Taufiqurahman has refused to name the ministry.

Sources say Susilo has long intended to replace National Police Chief General Da'i Bachtiar as part of his anti-corruption drive and his efforts to speed up reform in the police. However, due to resistance from officials at the State Secretary, the president had yet to realize his plan.

The police are well-known to be riddled with corruption at all levels and some say graft has actually worsened in the force since Susilo's administration took power.

Susilo needs only to go to the Jakarta traffic office on Jl. Daan Mogot, West Jakarta to see how corrupt the police are.

There, an applicant for a car driver's license needs to pay at least Rp 300,000 (US$31) to a broker to obtain the license, higher than the official rate of only Rp 110,000.

These "brokers" are police officers or other people that have a close link with the police.

Should an applicant refuse to use the broker's services and prefer to process the license themselves, the police handling the application will try their utmost to force the applicant to return to the brokers by looking for unnecessary errors in the application papers.

It is reported that the office can reap in some Rp 500 million in illegal fees from about 2,000 applicants a day.

Aside from the massive illicit proceeds, the police also reap huge illegal revenues from traffic violations. At present, a traffic violator often has to pay at least Rp 100,000 to traffic police to avoid their license from being confiscated.

According to a police sergeant stationed at the Ministry of Finance, most of the illegal income from traffic violations is given to high-ranking police officers, while the rest will be used to support the limited budgets for daily police operations.

"President Susilo seems to be ignoring these illegal practices, apparently because the amount involved is small. But he should know that the practices are directly affecting the public," said Jakarta Residence Forum chairman Azaz Tigor Nainggolan said.

"The public do not care that much about massive corruption that does not directly affect them. I think the President knows that the people, especially the poor, are being extorted nearly everyday by public servants," he said.

Azaz suggested Susilo issue a presidential regulation aimed specifically to root out corruption and extortion within the public service offices. The regulation should stipulate that public servants who received or asked for illegal fees from the public were investigated and fired, he said.

The government is planning to raise the wages of all public servants next year to help reduce corruption within the bureaucracy.

According to sources at the Ministry of Finance, the wages are set to increase by an average of 10 percent.

The government is also planning to set a time frame for document processing at all public offices to ensure faster services.