R

ampant bribery at the immigration office in Semarang, Central Java, has tripled the price of passports, according to an antigraft activist.

“With the spirit of eradicating corruption at every level of government, we are reporting the case to the Law and Human Rights Ministry,” Eko Haryanto, the secretary of the Corruption, Collusion and Nepotism Eradication and Investigation Committee’s Central Java chapter, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Eko said the official fee for a new biometric passport was Rp 263,000 (US$29.45), including a photograph, but in practice people were paying Rp 600,000 and even Rp 700,000 for expedited service.

“This cannot be tolerated. The immigration office has been engaging in a bad habit that must be stopped immediately,” Eko said.

“Our data is valid,” Eko said. “It is based on our investigation, which was conducted over 15 days.”

“We monitored and conducted an investigation of the passport application and issuance procedures at the Semarang immigration office on Jl. Siliwangi, No. 814, from Oct. 10 until Oct. 5, and found several matters of concern,” Eko said.

Other than the alleged markups, the passport application process at the office tended to be complicated and time consuming for members of the general public who did not
use brokers.

Such brokers typically charge applicants additional fees to process or expedite their applications.

Eko said that an average of 100 people applied for passports at the Semarang immigration office every day.

Many of the applicants were assisted by 10 brokers who worked for local travel agencies.

Eko estimated that immigration officials and the brokers were collecting about Rp 33.7 million a day in additional fees levied on applicants, or about Rp 674 million a month.

When reached for comment, Semarang immigration office traffic division head Ahmad Othman said the office had posted warning signs advising passport applicants to not use brokers.

“We have posted a lot of signs at the office. I am not aware if the brokers are still hanging around,” Ahmad said.

Ahmad said passport applicants should avoid using the services of brokers and it was not the immigration office’s fault if people used the middlemen.

According to Ahmad, immigration officials only asked applicants for official fees and never asked applicants to pay additional fees beyond stated requirements.