Combating Corruption Growing More Urgent

KOMPAS/RONY ARIYANTO NUGROHO

Non-active ad hoc judge at the Medan Corruption Court,Merry Purba, who has been named a suspect for allegedly accepting bribes, is questioned at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) building in Jakarta, Monday (19/11/2018). Merry is believed to have accepted S$280,000 in bribes in connection with a corruption case related to land-use rights implicating businessman Tamin Sukardi.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has released the results of the 2017 Integrity Assessment Index (SPI). The commitment of the central and regional governments to eradicating corruption is very important.

Bribery, gratification and nepotism are still rampant in many ministries, institutions and regional administrations that influence policymaking. Corruption still occurs because anyone who attempts to report it to law enforcement is excluded from the workplace and their career is impeded.

Leaders of state institutions, both at the central and regional levels, must be fully committed to improving corruption prevention efforts. The lack of serious attention to improving prevention efforts will make it difficult to raise the quality of public services and bureaucratic reform will also stagnate.

This is indicated in the 2017 Integrity Assessment Index that the KPK released on Wednesday in Jakarta. KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo said that the SPI should be viewed as a reflection of the long road ahead for corruption eradication efforts in the country.

"We still need to work hard. Each institution must follow up the results of this survey to improve and map out the right solution. There is an increase in efforts to combat corruption, but [progress] is slow. It took 19 years for the [national] GPA to increase from 17 to 37. Acceleration [of efforts] is necessary,” he said.

The 2017 SPI for 36 ministries, institutions and regional administrations was based on a survey by KPK conducted in collaboration with the Statistics Indonesia (BPS) and the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas). The KPK and BPS also conducted a similar survey in 2016.

The survey highlights four areas of assessment: the anti-corruption culture, human resource management, budget management and anti-corruption systems. The survey respondents came from within the institutions and also involved external parties such as those who relied on public services as well as experts. The integrity assessment index used a scoring scale of 0-100, with 100 indicating the best integrity level and lower corruption risk.

The mean index is 66 points. The Banda Aceh city administration attained the highest score of 77.39 points, followed by the Badung regency administration in Bali with 77.15 points, the Finance Ministry (76.54), the Health Ministry (74.93) and then the Madiun city administration in East Java (74.15). The institutions with the lowest scores were the Papua provincial administration with 52.91 points, the National Police (54.01), the North Maluku provincial administration (55.29), the Banten provincial administration (57.64) and the Bengkulu city administration (58.58).

"However, having a high score does not mean there is no corruption, because it can occur even in an established system. This is a portrait of our institutions. That is, improvements must be made across all institutions, because corruption has the potential to occur in every institution, even those with an above-average scores," said KPK Research and Development director Wardiana.

The National Police have a below-average integrity index because no employees were willing to take part in the survey. Upon seeing the survey results, the National Police stated that it was committed to regularly improving its performance.

National Police public information bureau head Brig. Gen. (Pol) Dedi Prasetyo said that his side would coordinate with the KPK on the results of the survey. The police, he added, needed clear understanding of the assessment’s scoring and methodology.

"The National Police are calm in taking in [the assessment]. We will make improvements, but we ask for the right moment, not ahead of [an election] year," said Dedi.

Asking for money

Based on the results in each assessment area, 30 percent of internal respondents believed that bribery/gratification affected the employment policy at their institutions, while 20.11 percent of internal respondents said they had heard or witnessed nepotism in recruitment.

As for the Bengkul, Aceh and Banten administrations, external respondents said that government employees had asked them for money in connection with public services. Interestingly, the external respondents said such practices could not be stopped because of the lax whistleblower system and because protection for whistleblowers was not guaranteed.

Twenty-two percent of all employees believed that employees who reported corruption would find their careers obstructed and that they would become isolated. They also believed that the perpetrators would not be punished according to prevailing laws and regulations. These views were apparent in almost every institution, indicating that internal factors hampered efforts to improve transparency and accountability at state institutions.

BPS social resilience statistics director Harmawanti Marhaeni said that the survey would be conducted every year and all state institutions would also be encouraged to conduct independent assessments.

Anti-fraud senior analyst Isnainijati at the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and Finance Ministry inspector general Sumiyati said that their institutions had conducted an independent integrity survey in 2017. According to the two officials, their internal surveys had enabled the institutions to map out the issues and sought to prevent corruption by strengthening the whistleblower system.

Home Ministry first inspector Dadang Sumantri Mohtar said that the ministry would immediately issue a circular to all regional heads to follow up on the integrity index. (IAN/SAN)