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.