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Bandung tops list as most corrupt city
A survey conducted by Transparency International Indonesia (TII) has revealed that this year, the capital city of West Java, Bandung, comes out on top as the most corrupt city in the nation
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A survey conducted by Transparency International Indonesia (TII) has revealed that this year, the capital city of West Java, Bandung, comes out on top as the most corrupt city in the nation.
The survey, titled the 'Corruption Perception Survey', constitutes TII's attempt to map out corruption and to see how effective the country's anticorruption programs are at the local level. This year, TII measured perceptions on corruption in 11 cities across the country.
TII interviewed 1,100 entrepreneurs in 11 cities, including Bandung, North Jakarta, Semarang, Surabaya, Medan, Padang, Pekanbaru, Manado, Makassar, Banjarmasin and Pontianak, between May 20 and June 17 of this year.
Bandung came at the bottom of the list with a score of 39, measured on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (clean), followed by Pekanbaru with 42 and Makassar with 48. The survey put Banjarmasin as the least corrupt city with a score of 68, followed by Surabaya with 65 and Semarang with 60.
'The perception of corruption at the local level correlates with the decline both in competitiveness and the ease of doing business,' TII's researcher Wahyudi Thohary said.
Wahyudi said that cities with high scores provided better measures to help entrepreneurs run their business.
He said that the survey should be used by local administrations to improve.
'City administrations need to employ systematic measures to fight corruption because the survey shows that corruption is deep and systemic,' he added. 'They need to map each integrated local system to determine which areas can contribute significantly in the fight against graft.'
Bandung has performed better in past surveys.
Bandung came in 22nd place out of 50 cities in a similar 2010 survey, with a score of 5.04, slightly above the national average of 4.9 on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being most corrupt.
Under the leadership of Mayor Ridwan Kamil, Bandung has tried to polish its image as a city for creative industry.
In January, the Bandung Corruption Court sent former judge Pasti Serefina Sinaga to prison for four years after she was found guilty of bribery. The four-year sentence was less than the 11-year prison term demanded by prosecutors. Earlier this year, the court also acquitted former Indramayu regent Irianto MS Syafiuddin in a corruption case involving the Sumur Adem steam-fueled power plant (PLTU) project.
In the 2010 survey, Surabaya came in 48th place with an index of 3.94. While two other cities at the bottom of the 2015 list, Pekanbaru and Makassar, placed 50th with 3.61 and 47th with 3.97. respectively.
The 2010 survey placed Denpasar as the least corrupt city in Indonesia with a score of 6.71, slightly above the national average, followed by Tegal in Central Java with 6.26 and Surakarta in Central Java with 6. The bottom three cities were Surabaya with 3.94, Cirebon in West Java with 3.61 and Pekanbaru with 3.61.
In TII's 2005 survey, Jakarta was the most corrupt city in the country, followed by Surabaya, Medan and Semarang out of a total of 21 provinces, municipalities and regencies surveyed at that time.
Wahyudi said the respondents also believed that more effective prosecution and better accountability of public funding could reduce corruption.
This year's survey found that the public believed the police, the judiciary and the legislative branch continued to be plagued by rampant corruption, although many have seen improvements.
Respondents also believed that bribery continued to be prevalent in the oil and gas, mining and forestry sectors.
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