T

he arrest of Tegal Mayor Siti Masitha in a sting operation by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) is yet another grim reminder of the fact that freedom from the “colonization” of corruption remains an unrealized vision for many Indonesians.

Siti was arrested for allegedly accepting bribes in relation to infrastructure projects and licensing in the Central Java city. She was also suspected of using the proceeds to fund her campaign for the 2018 local election. Several other individuals were also nabbed, including NasDem Party politician Amir Mirza Hutagalung.

In October last year, at the Central Java governor’s office in Semarang, the KPK in collaboration with the provincial government held a coordination meeting with all mayors and regents across the province to discuss various corruption-related issues. All the mayors and regents in attendance, including Siti, then signed a joint commitment on anti-corruption coordination and supervision.

Only less than two months later, however, KPK investigators arrested the regent of Klaten, Sri Hartini, in a sting operation.

Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo said the Tegal mayor’s arrest was like a slap to his face. He regretted that the arrest came despite a number of warnings in the form of sting operations that should have discouraged public officials from committing graft.

Apart from the arrests, the KPK has been working closely with local governments in coordinating and supervising corruption prevention through the Korsupgah program.

The program includes obtaining from the target regions comprehensive data and facts concerning various problems related to corruption and the most appropriate measures to cope with them.

Meetings of heads of the regions, anti-corruption lectures and workshops for public officials are also held to raise awareness on the danger of corruption. However, judging from the number of new high-profile corruption suspects, most of whom were public officials, it is clear that much more still needs to be done to prevent future offenses.

The “traditional” approach of corruption prevention generally revolves around the anti-corruption policy and regulation as well as monitoring and detection systems. Although meetings and lectures may help raise awareness of public officials about corruption, changing their attitude toward corrupt acts is a much harder task to accomplish.

Corruption is a human act with elements such as deception, intention and rationalization, and culture and society play a major role in determining people’s behavior through ties and connections. Many scholars believe that an individual’s view of the world is largely shaped by his or her interactions with others in his or her community, including one’s view on the notion of right or wrong.

Many view an organization as a learning entity. Each organization continuously gains new knowledge through internal and external interactions. The knowledge acquired by an organization will be transferred to and adopted by its members. Knowledge on how to commit corruption successfully is an example of detrimental knowledge that will gradually erode an organization from the inside.

Generally, organizational knowledge comprises explicit and tacit elements. Whereas explicit knowledge can be expressed in a language (e.g. policies, data and standard operating procedures), which makes it relatively easier to articulate, communicate, process and store, tacit knowledge tends to be more personal and harder to formalize (e.g. beliefs, tradition, inherited practices, implied values and prejudgments).

Many behavioral experts estimate that around 95 percent of an organization’s characteristics (e.g. level of resistance or tolerance to corruption) are determined by its tacit knowledge.

Measures such as anti-corruption policies, monitoring systems, standard operating procedures and e-procurement systems are indeed not enough to build public institutions that resist corruption as long as beliefs, values and prejudgments still tolerate corruption. For example, the authoritarian tradition within a public institution will diminish the effectiveness of the whistle-blowing system as members of the institution are reluctant or afraid of reporting any wrongdoings.

Negative tacit knowledge is like a ghost that haunts an organization; it requires high perceptiveness to feel its presence. Formal and ceremonial events will only create barriers for stimulating discernment, which underlies the unlearning process.

Trust and relationships must be established between agents and targets of change, primarily through direct interactions so as to eliminate barriers for the process.

When corruption-related elements of tacit knowledge are no longer part of the organization, then all other anti-corruption measures will work effectively.
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The writer is director of the Centre for Forensic Accounting Studies at the Islamic University of Indonesia, Yogyakarta. He obtained his master’s and doctorate degrees in forensic accounting at the University of Wollongong, Australia.