A

s part of its drive to improve people's participation in combating corruption, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has launched an online system allowing citizens to report graft cases.

"KPK's Online Monitoring System enables people to file corruption allegation reports anonymously. So their identity will be kept confidential," KPK deputy chairman for prevention M. Jasin said.

He added the online service was part of the anti-graft body's efforts to protect whistle-blowers.

Reports can be submitted to the following web link: www.kpk.go.id.

Informants can log information without revealing their identity, communicate with the commission's officials if additional information is needed, and monitor developments in the graft case they have reported.

"The informants can report any corruption allegations including the ones implicating KPK officials," Jasin said.

Jasin said the system was also equipped with a mechanism to reduce the number of informants making false claims.

"We will not process a report if the informant does not submit a password and *phone* number that we can contact," he said.

He added that when the service was officially launched on Wednesday morning, 511 reports were submitted through the system, compared to 600 a month when processed manually.

Jasin said the system had been developed by a private German company called Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GTZ).

The institution will also finance the operational side of the site for the next two years, Jasin said.

Secretary-general of Transparency International Indonesia Teten Masduki, who attended the launch, said the online monitoring system could help improve the commission's performance.

"The system will automatically protect whistle-blowers," he said.

However, he warned such a system also risked flooding the commission with reports, including ones with no connection to corruption and public officials.

Therefore, he hoped the KPK would also set up an efficient report management system to process all the reports. Aside from allowing citizens to report corruption allegations conducted by public servants and KPK officials, the site also lets people submit complaints and give positive feedback about government agencies that provide public services.