T

he Jakarta administration has reportedly evicted dozens of families for illegally occupying low-cost apartments owned by the government. The tough move is a lesson for anyone opting to seek the services of middlemen to fulfill their bids, which of course runs counter to the appropriate procedure.

The evictions come as no surprise as the city needs many more such apartments to accommodate the tens of thousands of squatters who face eviction from slum areas and riverbanks, to pave the way for the Jakarta administration'€™s flood-prevention program.

However, targeting illegal occupants will not solve the matter, as others will fall victim to the practices of cheating involving middlemen. It is an open secret that the brokers operate, whether covertly or overtly, with the support of certain government officials who want to make some easy money.

As reported by Koran Tempo, some of the former occupants of the low-cost apartments said they had each paid
Rp 10 million (US$833) to middlemen, who refused to give them receipts. The police are investigating this fraudulent practice, although no one has so far been arrested, let alone charged.

The media have widely reported that the practice is performed in public service agencies under the auspices of the Jakarta administration. Just recently, media reports published allegations that middlemen had been involved in the procurement of the faulty Chinese buses intended for the Transjakarta service. Previously, it was revealed that brokers had played a role in helping contenders secure school principal posts during an open call initiated by the Jakarta government.

Such reports merely highlight the fact that brokering remains unabated in the procurement of goods and services and the recruitment of public officials in Jakarta, despite persistent attempts to combat the illegal practice. Not only does the practice cultivate corruption, which leads to a high-cost economy, but it also denies the rights of citizens to access public services, as in the case of slum dwellers.

Jakarta Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo and his deputy, Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama, have tried to improve transparency and accountability in the capital city'€™s bureaucracy.

Electronic procurements and an open recruitment system are the correct measures to prevent corruption and contain the practice of brokering. But in order to make all these efforts more sustainable, the city government needs a more systematic monitoring mechanism to substantially reduce, or even put an end to, brokering practices throughout all government agencies. Such a supervision mechanism would offer Jakarta'€™s officials no choice other than to abide by existing regulations.

That these brokerage practices survive and have managed to resist the bureaucratic reform initiated by the current Jakarta administration should send a clear signal that demand for such services remains high. If that is indeed the case, the city government may have to adopt harsher tactics to push through its reform measures '€” if necessary, through job firings and replacements.