Poor accountability of civil servant creates room for corruption
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Radical reform of the Indonesian administration and bureaucracy is imperative to help curb endemic corruption among civil servants, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report has said.
The bank's Country Governance Assessment Report said rampant corruption among civil servants was made possible by poor management at all levels of administration, as well as by a lack of transparency in recruitment and promotion, and by bribes being paid for appointments.
The government demonstrated its preference for an open recruitment system last year by holding simultaneous nation-wide civil service recruitment tests for 204,584 positions to minimize the possibility of bribery.
However, Law No. 43/1999 on Civil Servants, and Government Regulation No. 25/2002 on Jurisdiction of the Central Government and Provinces allows for closed recruitment, which leads to opportunities for bribery.
It is an open secret that applicants for government positions usually have to pay money to get accepted.
The report said that there were anecdotal indications that suggested that the level of corruption in appointments and promotions was significant. Promotions were often given to the highest bidder, with higher payments being required for entry into "lucrative" jobs.
"The trade in positions serves three illicit purposes. The person paying the bribe is assured a job with rewards that cannot be expected from basic salaries and allowances. For the persons accepting the bribe, it provides some income," the report said.
"It also guarantees personal loyalty to the patron under whom this operation works and thus enforces allegiance in maintaining corrupt practices and assuring secrecy."
A source at the Office of the State Minister of Culture and Tourism confirmed that bribing of National Civil Service Board (BKN) officials took place very often.
"Civil servants do it to expedite the administration process," said the man, who has served 18 years as a civil servant.
The source also confirmed the subjectivity of appraisals conducted by superiors in each department, where arbitrary likes and dislikes prevailed.
The report also found that the policy of maintaining low basic salary levels plus various types of allowances, made civil servants look for other avenues to obtain income.
"I've been working for almost two decades but my basic salary is only Rp 1.2 million. Therefore, I'm counting on money from projects to increase my income," said the source.
The ADB report said that annual performance assessments of civil servants did not evaluate performance based on targets and objectives, but as a means to extend rewards.
In conclusion, the ADB suggested that radical reforms be made, among other things by seeing to it that all actions taken by civil servants have a basis in law, that they be accountable to their superiors, and that effective accountability mechanisms be put in place. (006)