Jakarta, customs top graft list
Jakarta, customs top graft list
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
In the eyes of the business community, Jakarta is the most
corrupt city and the customs service the most corrupt institution
in the country, according to a survey by Transparency
International Indonesia (TII), the results of which were revealed
on Wednesday.
Of 21 cities/regencies surveyed, the country's capital was
perceived to be the most corrupt by the business community,
followed by the major provincial capitals and industrial centers
of Surabaya, Medan and Semarang.
Getting positive reviews were the smaller cities of Wonosobo,
Banjarmasin, and Makassar, which were perceived as being the
least corrupt cities in the country.
The survey compiled the responses to questionnaires and face-
to-face interviews with 1,305 business owners and top managers
from local and multinational firms operating in the 21 areas.
The questions mostly centered around the need to pay bribes in
order to obtain public procurement contracts and business
permits, and also the level of satisfaction with the services
provided by local government institutions.
"It's quite saddening that the ambivalence of local
businessmen as regards bribery actually exacerbates the problem,"
said Todung Mulya Lubis, a member of the TII's board of
directors.
The survey confirmed public concerns about deep-rooted
corruption within government institutions, and served to back up
a Transparency International (TI) survey that ranked Indonesia as
the fifth most corrupt country out of 146 surveyed last year.
The 2004 Indonesian Corruption Perception Index survey,
conducted between October and December last year, was conducted
in cooperation with, among other bodies, the Berlin-based TI and
the European Commission.
The 21 cities were selected based on a number of factors and
discussions, including with the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (Kadin), and were ranked on a scale of zero to 10,
with zero indicating the most corrupt.
Besides identifying the country's most corrupt areas, the
survey also said that the customs service, police, and armed
forces were the institutions where bribery was most common.
A total of 140 respondents said they had to pay bribes to the
custom service approximately 31 times per year, with the average
amount paid each time being Rp 38 million (US$4,086).
Meanwhile, over half of the respondents believed that strict
law enforcement with severe punishments for culprits were
essential for eliminating corruption in the country, and were
believed to be more important than higher salaries.
Therefore, most of them hoped the government would press ahead
with the hard task of reforming the country's weak legal system.