RI urged to adopt pact to fight bribery in country

RI urged to adopt pact to fight bribery in country

JAKARTA (JP): Global corruption watchdog Transparency
International advised the Indonesian government on Thursday to
adopt its Integrity Pact to combat rampant bribery and corruption
in the country.

"The fact that there is so much corruption described in
Indonesia suggests that the rules need changing... It (the pact)
will be an effective way to eradicate corruption," said Michael
H. Wiehen, who is a member of the Berlin organization's board.

He spoke at a seminar on business transparency and good
governance held by the Anti-Corruption Forum (FAK), which
comprises several non-governmental anticorruption organizations,
including Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) and Indonesian
Transparency Society.

Indonesia was ranked the sixth most corrupt country in the
world after Cameroon, Paraguay, Honduras, Tanzania and Nigeria in
Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for
1998.

The pact itself is a concrete program designed to exclude
corruption from procurement contracts involving multinational
companies and the governments of developing countries.

Wiehen said the pact offered concrete commitments by the
government not to tolerate the acceptance of any bribes or
corruptive efforts, and that it will stop its officials from
demanding any particular advantages.

Wiehen said bidders who violated their commitment would be
liable to significant sanctions, such as denial or loss of
contract, liability for damages to the government and competitor
bidders and blacklisting from bidding.

"We suggest that the amount of liability will range between 5
percent and 10 percent of the total contract value, while the
period of blacklisting will probably five years for the first
violation and maybe forever for the next case," he said.

Businessman Arifin Panigoro, another speaker at seminar, said
corruption was a main factor in the collapse of the Indonesian
economy.

He cited the large number of corruption cases and other forms
of malfeasance uncovered annually by the Development Financial
Comptroller.

He said corruption marred many transactions within the private
sector and between businesses and the government.

"This can be seen from the huge amount of nonperforming bank
loans that caused the current crisis in the Indonesian banking
system," Arifin added.

He said the eradication of corruption need a fundamental
change in the government's role and attitude.

The chairman of ICW's Council of Ethics, Todung Mulya Lubis,
said the fact that Indonesia ranked among the 10 most corrupt
nations should have forced the government, business community and
public to arrive at a strong political will and determination to
create a clean government.

Lubis was skeptical about the government's will to combat
corruption.

"Frankly speaking, I cannot help myself about being skeptical
because since former president Soeharto stepped down, the current
government has shown only very artificial interest in combating
corruption," he said.

Todung said the law on clean governance, which was approved by
the House of Representatives last week, was important legal
reform.

"But the new legislation is far from satisfactory," Todung
added.

The House is still debating an anticorruption bill to amend
the outdated Corruption Law No. 3/1971.

Arifin shared Wiehen's view that Indonesia should adopt the
Integrity Pact and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development's Antibribery Convention.

The convention requires the enactment of laws and regulations
to prohibit the establishment of off-the books accounts and
similar practices used to bribe foreign public officials or to
hide such bribery. (cst)