I

ndonesia'€™s bureaucracy is notoriously corrupt and inefficient, and the competition to secure positions within it is fierce, particularly at the regional level, with some willing to pay millions of rupiah in bribes to secure even a low-paid state job.

Others, meanwhile, have fallen victim to ersatz recruitment schemes targeting desperate job seekers.

In Klaten, Central Java, the regional employment agency reported that dozens of people had recently been taken in by scams promising employment with the local administration.

The agency'€™s employment affairs unit head, Dodhy Herman, said those duped had been contract civil servants (CPNS), and had been promised to be appointed as full civil servants without having to undergo any of the usual selection procedures, in return for payments of between Rp 50 million (US$3,700) and Rp 160 million.

The ruse, Dodhy said, was convincing, with every victim receiving, after paying the money, a '€œnotification letter'€ purportedly sent by the National Civil Service Agency (BKN) confirming his or her appointment.

'€œThis is obviously a fraud,'€ Dodhy said on Thursday.

'€œHow could a CPNS receive confirmation so quickly? The Employee Identity Number [NIP] takes time to be processed and issued.'€

The state currently employs 4.5 million civil servants and 400,000 contract employees.

Although contract employees and CPNS receive much lower salaries than civil servants, vacancies are always vastly oversubscribed, as the positions are widely seen as a route to financial security.

Hermawan of Klaten, a victim of the hoax, said he had spent Rp 30 million to bribe a person claiming to be a regency administration official responsible for recruiting civil servants. The person, Hermawan said, had asked him to pay another Rp 20 million after he received the official placement letter.

'€œI waited for six months but never received a letter,'€ the 31-year-old said.

'€œAfter I crosschecked with the local administration, it turned out there was actually no CPNS registration that year.'€

Meanwhile in Central Sulawesi, a recent investigation carried out by the provincial ombudsman revealed that extortion had been commonplace during CPNS recruitment processes in Sigi regency between 2013 and 2015.

The ombudsman found that some local officials did not immediately hand over CPNS appointment letter to individuals who had passed the recruitment, instead pawning them to money-lenders or loan sharks for between Rp 10 million and Rp 25 million per letter.

'€œA CPNS who wished to obtain the letter would be asked to pay off the debts with his or her own money,'€ Central Sulawesi Ombudsman head Sofyan Farid Lembah said, adding that the institution had forwarded the findings to the regent of Sisi.

Attempts to take advantage of job seekers are also evident in the emergence of websites falsely announcing CPNS recruitment for ministries and other state bodies.

Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry spokesperson Herman Suryatman said that the ministry had recently reported 17 websites to the National Police'€™s Criminal Investigation Bureau (Bareskrim) for falsifying civil servant recruitment information.

'€œThe websites publish recruitment schedules and even quotations from the administrative and bureaucratic reform minister. It is exploitation,'€ he said.