Lack of transparency leads to corruption

Lack of transparency leads to corruption

JAKARTA (JP): The lack of transparency in government policy
making has caused top heavy corruption, a leading economist said
yesterday.

Sjahrir of University of Indonesia told a seminar on
bureaucracy that corruption prevailed thanks to policies which,
despite their legitimacy, favored certain groups or people.

"The problem does not lie in whether we need an independent
supervisory body, but in how transparent the process of policy
making is so that it is open for debate," Sjahrir said.

He said policies should be logical so that people could
question their feasibility.

"An opaque system enables various interest groups to
intervene... A policy, for example, may be issued to win popular
support in a general election," he said.

This opaque process could generate policies which clearly
advantaged the elite under the guise of national interests, he
said. This practice would eventually lead to rent seeking.

"We have a very long list detailing this kind of (policy
making) pattern," he said.

Sjahrir said the rule of law and transparency should apply to
build a clean government. He said that people in some countries
preferred a clean and transparent bureaucracy to democracy.

"In a country which consistently embraces the rule of law, the
government will see its policies obeyed by the people without
question," he said.

Sjahrir was speaking on the second day of the seminar which
featured Minister of Defense and Security Edi Sudradjat,
economist Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti, mass communications expert
Astrid Susanto and sociologist Selo Sumardjan.

Polemics on corruption eradication resurfaced recently when
legislator A.A. Baramuli suggested that an independent
supervisory board be established besides the Supreme Audit Agency
and the Development and Finance Control Board.

The Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy
Ltd. revealed in April that a survey of 280 executives concluded
that Indonesia was the most corrupt country in Asia.

On Monday, Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudhohusodo
suggested that high-ranking officials should voluntarily declare
their wealth before assuming their jobs and then declare what
they owned at the end of their tenures.

Minister of Administrative Reforms T.B. Silalahi agreed
yesterday to Siswono's idea, although the government had already
ruled that high-ranking officials were obliged to declare their
wealth to prevent corruption.

Silalahi said it was impossible to eradicate corruption
because it was common throughout the world, even in
industrialized countries like the United States.

"It is clear that we cannot completely get rid of corruption,"
he said. "We can only minimize it. Corruption-free people live
only in heaven." (amd)

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