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)