Latief warns officials about illegal levies

Latief warns officials about illegal levies

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Manpower Abdul Latief yesterday
warned his subordinates in the regions that he will punish them
severely if they are caught imposing levies on members of the
public they serve.

"Don't be surprised if the head office takes stern action,"
Latief said when opening a four-day conference with senior
ministry officials and the heads of the ministry's provincial
offices.

The ministry has already removed a number of officials in the
past who were suspected of charging unofficial levies. But the
practice has remained rampant to this day, he said.

He singled out the Directorate General for Industrial
Relations and Workers Standards and the Directorate General for
Workers Placement as the most notorious for imposing levies.

He placed the burden of improving the image of the ministry on
the regional chiefs. "The officials should feel ashamed if their
subordinates are caught collecting illegal levies," he said.

Latief, a former businessman himself, is heading the
government's campaign to phase out levies, official and
otherwise, to ease the burden on companies now under strong
pressure from foreign competition.

As the minister most responsible for overseeing the welfare of
Indonesian workers, Latief has found that each time he tries to
raise official minimum wages, business leaders balk by demanding
that the government eliminate the various levies that have been a
big burden on their cost of operations.

One of the objectives of the conference is to draft the
national manpower planning for Indonesia for the period to 2018,
the end of the 10th Five Year Plan, and prepare the nation for
the next century, which Latief describes as the era of openness
and free trade.

Latief said that a series of reforms carried out by the
government in favor of workers in recent years has helped push
workers to side with the government.

"We have to take advantage of this momentum, especially in
winning the upcoming general election (in 1997)," he said,
without elaborating.

These reforms, which include strengthening the workers' union,
have silenced Indonesian critics abroad who have attacked
Indonesia's industrial relations, he said.

Latief also underlined Indonesia's drive to send workers
abroad, pointing out that by 2000, some 2.5 million Indonesians
will be working overseas, whose total remittances are expected to
reach $12.5 billion a year. (16)