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ajor political parties have cited the low salary of civil servants' as the main reason for the country's poor bureaucratic services and rampant corruption.

Party leaders pledged Monday to find a way to increase the salaries of government officers' in the upcoming administration.

"Low salaries have led many civil servants to give mediocre public services while some others abuse their authority and are corrupt," Golkar Party legislator Harry Azhar Azis told The Jakarta Post.

Harry, who leads Golkar's economic team, said that the government should establish a remuneration system that is able to support the purchasing power of their civil servants, especially in this time of recession.

"If the government still has difficulties increasing their salaries significantly, it should at least guarantee that it will adjust the existing salaries of low-rank officers by at least a same level as the inflation rate."

Ganjar Pranowo, a legislator from the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), agreed on the importance of increasing the salary of civil servants, but proposed a different approach.

"Increasing the civil servants' salary is a must, but if the government can't afford that it should first provide them with health insurance and affordable education for their children," Ganjar, who is also deputy secretary-general of the PDI-P, said.

Meanwhile, Anas Urbaningrum from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party emphasized that a plan to increase the salary of civil servants would only work if the government implemented it "in stages".

Indonesia currently has some 3.9 million civil servants. Those who are in the lowest rank receive a monthly basic salary of Rp 1.04 million (US$90) and those in the highest rank receive Rp 3.4 million.

The three politicians also agreed that the government should evaluate the recruitment process of civil servants, which they consider ineffective.