SBY issues new instruction on corruption, focuses on prevention

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued a new regulation on corruption with an increased focus on prevention by signing Presidential Instruction (Inpres) No. 17/2011 on Prevention and Eradication of Corruption.

“Signed on Dec. 19, the new instruction will be effective in January 2012,” Vice President Boediono said Friday as quoted by tempo.co.

The new instruction prioritizes the prevention aspects of the fight against corruption through better management and work procedures at government institutions.

“I hope the implementation of the new instruction will be better than the previous one,” Boediono said in a coordinating meeting at the Vice Presidential Palace.

Previously, Yudhoyono has issued Inpres No. 9/2011 in May

The Presidential Working Unit for Development Monitoring and Control (UKP4) will be assigned to monitor the implementation of the action plan every three months as mandated by the new Inpres.

With both instructions, the government will implement six strategies as recommended by the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). The six strategies are prevention at law enforcement agencies; prevention at other agencies; enforcement; regulation harmonization; assets recovery from corrupt practices; international cooperation; and reporting.

The government is targeting to improve its Corruption Perception Index (CPI) score to 5.0 in 2012.  Conducted each year by Transparency International, the CPI measures levels of perceived corruption in over 150 countries around the world, assigning scores ranging from zero (the most corrupt) to 10 (very clean). 

This year, Indonesia scored 3.0 of CPI which is carried out annually by the International Transparency. The result places Indonesia in the 100th position out of 183 countries measured.

Indonesia has shown slow, steady improvement in its scores over the last two years.  In 2009 it ranked 111^th out of 180 contries, rising to 110^th out of 178 countries with a score of 2.8 in 2010. (iwa)