Low salaries no excuse for poor discipline, Try says

JAKARTA (JP): The Vice President has attacked the behavior of the civil service, saying a low pay scale is a poor excuse for neglecting duties and making ethical compromises.

While he acknowledged that there is a relationship between an individuals welfare and the quality of his work he said that a strong sense of responsibility towards the importance of the job can overcome this problem.

Try was addressing civil service (Korpri) executives at the Merdeka Selatan Palace on Saturday at the close of a congress on the corps future.

Civil servants are among the lowest paid fixed income workers in the country, and this has often been used to explain their poor performance and the corruption that is rife on many layers within the state bureaucracy.

The government has promised to improve the welfare of its workers in recent years, particularly in the lowest income brackets. This year though, their salaries have been frozen as the government is pressed to finance its ambitious development programs.

With the recent salary hikes, a new civil servant with a junior high school diploma earns a basic salary of Rp 78,000 (US$37) a month. The salary of those in the same grade with 10 years on the job is Rp 106,000.

A university graduate who joins the civil service will earn Rp 150,000 in basic salary a month.

At the top end of the salary structure, a Grade IV civil servant with 32 years of experience earns Rp 537,600 a month.

Legislators in the past have argued that embezzlement and corruption are written into the system, saying that many civil service salaries barely cover two weeks expenses and forces to raise to take advantage of opportunities to supplement their income.

Discipline

Try said that civil servants should strengthen their discipline and improve their work ethic while the government continues to try to improve their welfare.

"Everyone realizes the need to improve the welfare of Korpri members, but it is also a fact that people's expectations tend to run ahead of the ability to fulfill their needs," he said.

Civil servants, given their important role, must become role models in society he added.

The congress, which was opened by President Soeharto on Wednesday, was attended by about 600 people.

Soeharto also harped on the need for government workers to become more responsible in discharging their duties, stressing a willingness to be accountable as the most important quality a public servant can possess.

Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M., who is also chairman of Korpri's council of patrons, reported to Try on Saturday that the meeting agreed to draft a code of ethics for the organization. (emb)