RI's corruption perception index improves, despite irony of declining KPK

Irawaty Wardany ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 11/18/2009 1:11 PM  |  Headlines

Indonesia remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world despite a tiny improvement in its Corruption Perception Index (ICP), now scoring 2.8 out of a possible 10 in terms of corruption eradication perception performance.

Transparency International (TI) announced its latest ICP survey results on Tuesday with Indonesia scoring only 0.2 higher than last year on this index.

This placed Indonesia in the 121st position globally out of 180 countries being surveyed by TI (up 15 in the list from last year). Indonesia is now in the same bracket as Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Kiribati, Mali, Sao Tome and Principe, the Solomon Islands and the Republic of Togo.

The survey also recorded New Zealand as being the least corrupt country scoring 9.4, followed by Denmark with 9.3 and Singapore and Sweden both with 9.2.

The ICP survey result came in the midst of the struggle over alleged charges of bribery and abuse of power by the police against the two suspended KPK deputies, Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah.

"It's an irony, but for the record this study was conducted prior to the dispute between the Gecko and the Crocodile *two terms referring to the Corruption Eradication Commission, or KPK, and the police respectively* emerged," TII chairman Todung Mulya Lubis said in a statement.

He said if a similar study were conducted now, it might show Indonesia at the bottom of the index.

Todung, a member of the presidential fact-finding team who handed over their final report to the President on Tuesday, appreciated the public support for the corruption eradication efforts in the country.

TII's secretary-general Teten Masduki said the President should follow up the fact-finding team's recommendations.

"If the police and AGO did not follow the recommendations, I'm afraid that could cause public anger and distrust toward the two institutions," he said.

TII's recent survey found the police force was perceived by the business community as the most corrupt institution, while corruption at judicial institutions was the costliest.

The survey was done between September and December last year, with 3,841 respondents, some 48 percent of all respondents, reportedly admitting to paying an average of over Rp 2.2 million (US$200) to bribe police officers.

The police also came first in the TII's 2007 survey, with a corruption perception index of 4.2.

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