Illegal fees nurtured to keep state running

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.