Performance contract praised

Performance contract praised

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Antigraft activists lauded on Sunday the performance advancement
campaign initiated by State Minister of Administrative Reforms
Taufik Effendi, but questioned his office's ability to
effectively muster sweeping changes.

Bambang Widjojanto of the Partnership for Governance Reform
said the most appropriate way to curb widespread corruption and
boost efficiency was to start reform at government agencies that
directly provided services to the public, rather than going after
big-time corruptors.

"However, I doubt if the Office of the State Minister of
Administrative Reform has the capacity to intervene with the
internal affairs of government agencies," he told The Jakarta
Post.

Bambang said Taufik's office should rather play a coordinating
role in the performance improvement campaign and draw up more
comprehensive plans for bureaucratic reforms.

"What is lacking now is coordination in the fight against
graft and the office of the administrative reforms minister can
fill in this gap," he said.

Taufik earlier said the performance contract signed by civil
servants with his office would take effect early next year.

Under the carrot-and-stick scheme, all civil servants are
required to improve their performance or face penalties.

The state minister's office has signed an agreement with the
Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to help it assess the
performance of government agencies. The agreement authorizes the
commission to take legal action against errant civil servants.

Government agencies that have signed the contracts to improve
their services include the Jakarta Police and immigration and tax
offices around the country.

Deputy coordinator of the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW)
Luky Djani said the performance contract would encourage civil
servants to improve their conduct.

Luky, however, said the campaign should have different
standards for different levels of bureaucracy.

"There has to be varying benchmarks ... A standard for low-
level officials should not be applied to high-ranking ones," he
told the Post.

He emphasized the reward and punishments in the contract
needed to be clearly spelled out.

"Productive civil servants could be given bonuses from the
money saved in the performance drive. On the other hand,
punishments should be as severe as possible.

"There have to be good reasons for civil servants to abandon
their bad-old ways," Luky said.