Officials and their wealth kept in check: Silalahi

Officials and their wealth kept in check: Silalahi

JAKARTA (JP): Minister for State Administrative Reforms T.B. Silalahi rejected yesterday the suggestion that the government lacks the political will to monitor the wealth of government officials.

Silalahi said that first echelon officials are required to disclose their wealth to the President every year, largely for the purpose of determining how much tax they must pay.

"And the procedure is still followed at present," Silalahi told journalists after meeting with members of the House of Representatives' Commission II on domestic affairs.

The minister made the comments after being asked his views on the recent demand by the Association of Islamic Students that officials publicly announce their wealth before, during and after they hold their posts.

The Association claims that such a public revelation of government officials' wealth and its sources would allow the public to check whether bureaucrats were "clean". The proposal has received widespread support from the public.

When asked to explain the reporting procedure, Silalahi said the first echelon officials' reports are approved and signed by the relevant ministers.

"The ministers give their approval (to the first echelon officials' reports)", he said.

During the commission hearing, Silalahi said that 61 percent of the 106,800 letters of complaint that had been received by the Vice President through P.O. Box 5000 since it was set up in 1988 were about corruption involving government officials.

The post box was made available to citizens concerned about corruption in the bureaucracy.

Complaints about abuses of power make up 22.5 percent, while complaints about poor public service constitute 13 percent of the letters sent to the post box, he said.

Fifteen percent of the letters come from Jakarta, followed by 14 percent from East Java.

The ministry most criticized by those sending letters is the home affairs ministry, the subject of 35 percent of the letters, followed by the Armed Forces headquarters, complained about by nine percent of the letters.

Silalahi said that the number of public complaints forwarded to the Vice President showed that regulations and supervision were not enough, by themselves, to create a "clean and respectable" government.

"Each part of the government apparatus must have the will to create a clean government," he said.

He said the quality of leadership in the bureaucracy was still "unsatisfactory".

According to Silalahi, tight supervision has yet to be boldly exercised, owing to weak leadership within the administration, including among senior officials.

He said there were many officials who had neither the ability, the initiative nor the willingness to supervise, control or monitor their staff. "This enables officials to abuse their power," he said.

The minister said that tight supervision has long been exercised in the Armed Forces and that public complaints concerning the military were few.

He said the government was designing a better, transparent career development program for civil servants. The system covers recruitment, career development and promotion.

The government plans to tighten criteria used in the recruitment of civil servants as of this 1995-1996 fiscal year, he said. (rms)