Indonesia world's no. 5 most corrupt nation: TI

Indonesia world's no. 5 most corrupt nation: TI

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia remains one of the world's most corrupt nations,
despite the current reform era that began after the 1998 fall of
president Soeharto, indicates a report from the Berlin-based
Transparency International (TI) Indonesia.

TI announced on Wednesday that Indonesia was ranked the fifth
most corrupt nation along with Angola, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Ivory Coast, Georgia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, who
received the same score as Indonesia among 146 countries
surveyed.

Among the ASEAN-member countries, Indonesia is ranked above
Myanmar based on TI's global corruption index. Last year, the
international graft watchdog put Indonesia No. 6 in its index.

In a press release, TI said that based on the index of 146
countries perceived by business leaders, academics, antigraft
activists and risk analysts across Indonesia, the country's score
was only 2.0, an increase from 1.9 last year.

Although Indonesia's index increased or rather improved by
0.1, Its ranking dropped because other countries managed to
improve their performance, it added.

Indonesia's index has moved between 1.7 and 2.0 since 1999,
indicating that the current reform movement had failed to
significantly reduce the public perception of corruption in the
country.

The watchdog said systemic corruption was the biggest
challenge for the government of President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, who was sworn in on Wednesday, to tackle, as he was
directly elected by the people for his pledge to fight graft.

Many have said his predecessor, Megawati Soekarnoputri, failed
to be reelected in the Sept. 20 election for being not serious in
eradicating corruption.

In his inaugural speech hours after taking his oath of office,
Susilo renewed his pledge that he would lead the antigraft drive
by his government to show his commitment to eradicate corruption.

TI said factors contributing to the index included a report
from the State Audit Agency (BPK) which revealed Rp 166.5
trillion in extensive irregularities in the use of state funds
from 1999 to 2004.

Quoting the BPK report, the graft watchdog said losses through
corruption amounted to some Rp 37.39 trillion in the first
semester of 2004 alone.

Ironically, the Attorney General's Office, which is mandated
to prosecute corrupters, failed to boost its performance, while
the BPK report showed the office as having the largest amount in
fund irregularities.

TI said the BPK report only reflected the suspected
embezzlement of funds from state budgets and excluded other graft
cases, such as project markups and bribery among government
officials.

Based on its interviews with businesspeople in 15 cities
across Indonesia, the watchdog concluded that bribery and other
unauthorized fees were widespread between businesspeople and
state officials in order to obtain business permits and during
court trials.

TI urged President Susilo to fulfill his promises by pursuing
his antigraft programs consistently, as the nation has already
pinned high hopes on him to eradicate corruption.

The organization said Susilo should adopt anticorruption
programs submitted to him by various non-governmental
organizations, including the Indonesian Corruption Watch.