The government’s 2010-2025 National Strategy and Action Plans on Corruption Eradication bring hope for Indonesia to eradicate corruption over the next 15 years, despite implementation delays, experts say.
President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono chaired the first Cabinet meeting in December to discuss the strategy after a year-long delay following submission of the National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS) draft proposal.
“The strategy will provide comprehensive measures and inter-institutional programs over a long period of time. It also involves non-law enforcement bodies that will help corruption prevention [efforts] to be more effective,” Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) member Mochammad Jasin commented on the government’s national strategy.
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Su-yanto said the strategy would enter into force in 2011.
“Starting next year, all institutions should begin implementing the national strategy and action plans,” Djoko recently told reporters.
According to the 86-page document, the strategy contains long-term programs in six areas: prevention, enforcement, law and regulation harmonization, recovery of assets from acts of corruption, international cooperation and coordination mechanisms.
Each area breaks down into dozens of time-lined programs. A larger matrix elaborates each program in detail, involving state institutions, target indicators, challenges and difficulties. However, several columns are presently still blank.
One program within the prevention area is restructuring and reassessing manpower needs in state bodies with high numbers of employees. The program is considered essential to making state bodies more efficient, financially and structurally. The government believes a resourceful institution is healthy and less prone to corruption.
The program is targeted to be completed in six years under the supervision of the Administrative Reforms Ministry.
Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) advocate Danang Widoyoko said he welcomed the long-term strategy, but warned the government not to repeat its failure in implementing the 2005 National Action Plans on Corruption Eradication.
“Long-term strategy is necessary, indeed. But I have read the document, and the content is more or less the same as the 2005 action plan, which I think was nothing more than a paper tiger. I’m afraid the 2010 strategy would be the same if the government treats it similarly to the 2005 document,” he told the Post.
Danang said the most essential element in establishing a national strategy was not the content, “but the seriousness to implement it.”
The 2005 action plan had been rendered powerless due to the absence of a legal umbrella from the President, Danang said. “As a result, state bodies found no pressure to follow it through,” he said, adding that he was afraid the national strategy was only another political tool for Yudhoyono to make himself look good.
“It would be better if the President issued a Presidential Instruction, which would hold more legal power,” he added.
Gadjah Mada University’s Center for Anticorruption Studies researcher Zainal Arifin Mochtar elaborated on the strategy for corruption prevention.
“Prevention and enforcement are equally important. Measures in both areas must be implemented simultaneously,” he told the Post.
highlights
Prevention
Accelerate financial management reform and implementation of e-procurement;
Implement single number identity system;
Advance public complaint mechanism.
Enforcement
Strengthen coordination among law enforcement bodies;
Reinvestigate high-profile and controversial corruption cases;
Accelerate legal processes on corruption cases involving councilors, legislators, and regional leaders.
Asset recovery
Establish a special body tasked to trace assets obtained from acts of corruption;
Train law enforcers on asset tracing, freezing, confiscating, forfeiture and forensic audits.
International cooperation
Amend laws and regulations related to extradition;
Optimize diplomatic cooperation with state members of the UNCAC;
Advance law enforcers’ negotiation skills in terms of seizures of assets acquired from acts of corruption.
Source: 2010-2025 National Strategy and Action Plans on Corruption Eradication
