THE INDONESIAN NATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION STRATEGY

( By Amien Sunaryadi, MPA., CISA )

BACKGROUND

All indonesian people request that corruption, collusion, and nepotism must be eradicated. Documentation researches show that they have been requesting it since in the early of independence of Indonesia. Before, in the beginning, during and at the end of the ORDE BARU, and also in the beginning of the REFORMATION ERA, many things had been done to try to eradicate corruption. However, the results still not satisfy the people. In response to those situation, at the end of March 1999, BPKP launched the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (Strategi Pemberantasan Korupsi Nasional) book. The book (540 pages) presents BPKP's point of view that Indonesians should do in minimising corruption as the result of a compre- hensive research done by BPKP for almost two years. As of June 8th 1999, the book has been distributed at free of charge to more than 8,000 people throughout the country through the postal service. They consist of political parties, public position holders, government officials, NGOs, professionals, business associations, regional government officials, society and religious leaders, judges, attorneys, mass-media, academicians, university student associations, etc. for comments and feedback. Another effort is that the summary is presented to internationally respected organisations and people for comments and feedback. The English version of the book is still not available yet.

METHODOLOGY USED

Since two years ago, BPKP has been collecting information and researching some issues related to corruption in Indonesia. Based on the results, BPKP did some analysis to come up with a National Anti-Corruption Strategy that is documented into a book. The efforts undertaken by BPKP are:

• Facts of corruption in Indonesia :
  
  In this section, BPKP does several things, first, BPKP examines some definitions of corruption, such as those of Syed Hussein Alatas, Mochtar Lubis, H.A. Brasz, David H. Bayley, Sudomo, Andi Hamzah, Soedjono Dirdjosisworo, Robert Klitgaard, Transparency International, and Black's Law Dictionary. Also, BPKP examines corruption definition from several countries, such as Malaysia, Mexico, Cameroon, Nigeria, India, and Thai- land. Finally, BPKP examines the corruption definition used by the Indonesian Anti-Corruption Act, (Act number 3 of 1971). Second, following the examination of corruption definition, BPKP reviews the last few years of works done by BPKP and the Auditor General. Included in the subject matters reviewed are their tasks, results of their work, and constraints faced by them. Third, BPKP studies people's perceptions of corruption in Indonesia. Several surveys aimed at assessing the level of corruption in Indonesia are examined by BPKP. They comprise both domestic and international surveys, such as those done by Transparency International. The conclusion is that corruption in Indonesia is very high and spread all over sectors.
• Study on corruption in Indonesia :
  
  In this section, first, BPKP analyses various mode operandi of corruption in Indonesia. This analysis tries to define for each modes: who benefits, who loses, where it happens, what causes it, and also tries to identify possible ways to prevent it. Second, BPKP studies GOI efforts in eradicating corruption during some periods: after Indonesia got its Independence, in the beginning of the New Orde (the end of the 1960s), and during the New Orde (from 1970 to 1997). As the current development, BPKP also studies current poli- tical movement that impact the anti-corruption efforts. The study reviews almost all presidential policies for eradicating corruption during the periods, including reviews of all Presidential speeches before the House of Representatives (delivered twice a year). Third, BPKP reviews current anti-corruption laws existing in Indonesia. The review includes study of the history behind the enactment of the law, such as discussions within the House of Representatives prior to the enactment of the laws. Fourth, BPKP reviews opinions of many individual people and organi- sations. The reviews include analysis of more than 300 newspaper and magazine news / articles that contain opinions of the individual or a group of people or opinion of organisations. The review summarises their opinions on the causes of corruption and how to minimise corruption. Fifth, BPKP discusses vision on anti corruption with several govern mental institutions, such as the National Defence and Security Board, Leader of the People Consultative Assembly, Attorney General, Supreme Court, Supreme Audit Board, National Police, and the Leader of the ruling party (it was Golkar). Also, BPKP does some pooling within seminars and workshops on anti corruption, to get people's vision for their future regarding corruption matters. The conclusions are those all of them agree that corruption spreads all over the country, the people want to minimise corruption in Indonesia, and most of them do not know how to clean up corruption and how to start it. Lastly, BPKP reviews the latest political changes starting with the change in Indonesian national leadership, from Soeharto to Habibie. From the review, the conclusion is that all Indonesian people want the GOI to eradicate corruption (KKN in Indonesia jargon) as soon as possible. However, the people are still not satisfied with what the Habibie administration has done so far.
• International views, experiences and theories of corruption :
  
  In this section, first, BPKP reviews official documents of interna- tional organisations, such as United Nations, International Conference Against Corruption, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, IMF, OECD, Orga- nisation of American States, International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions, European Nations, Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation, USA, Transparency International, and the International Chamber of Commerce. The review concludes that the whole international community has begun anti-corruption movements. Second, BPKP examines other countries' experiences in minimising corruption. For these efforts, BPKP teams visited Singapore, Malaysia, Germany and France (BPKP has a representative office in Bonn). The visits studied general systems implemented in each country, in terms of the relationship and divisions of responsibility among several institutions in the countries studied. For example, BPKP examined the relationships and responsibilities of the Corruption Practice Investigation Board, Commercial Affairs Department, the Attorney General Chamber, the Auditor General Office and the Prime Minister Office related to efforts in mini- mising corruption in Singapore. Third, BPKP also reviews Hong Kong and Philippines experiences in minimising corruption from literature studies. Fourth, to have a better understanding of corruption analysis, BPKP reviews several theories of corruption, such as GONE transaction theory explained by Jack Bologna and CMDA theory explained by Robert Klitgaard. Fifth, since the proceeds of corruption is similar to the proceeds of other serious or organised crime that covered by money laundering activities, the strategy also includes the aspect of anti-money laun- dering strategy. The strategy presents the importances of a financial intelligence unit and CTRs / SARs systems that were used by the US and Australia.
• Analysis underlying the strategy :
  
  In this section, first, BPKP studies the causes of corruption. The study divides the causes of corruption into several groups, such as indi- vidual aspects of the corruption actor, organisational aspects where corruption happened, community aspects where the corruption actor and the organisation exists, and legal aspects of corruption. Second, BPKP studies the reasons why previous efforts of the GOI were not successful. This study identifies several causes as responsible for the failure of previous efforts, such as unsound political infra- structures, the influences of President Soeharto, lack of a national anti corruption strategy, weaknesses in personnel competencies of the institu- tions involved, weaknesses in the legal systems, and lack of "real" support from community. It is identified that the weaknesses in the legal system lead to improprieties in implementing the anti-corruption act and lead to difficulties in gathering evidence for corruption prosecution. From the study, it is also concluded that Indonesia should adopt the "prima facie" concept for corruption offences as the basis for reversing the onus of the proof to the defendant. Third, BPKP also studies causes of the contribution of the Indonesian civil service to the existence of corruption. The study shows that the salary of the civil service is very low compared to their average cost of living. However, increasing the salary is impossible due to limited budget. To increase salary for particular civil service also is impossible, since their performance appraisal system is not accurate which leads to the impossibility of implementing merit based human resource management for the civil service. Fourth, BPKP reviews transactions systems that involve money value in Indonesia. The conclusion is that if the money transactions can not be identified properly that leads to difficulties in tracing the transactions, which creates considerable problems in establishing connection corrupt conduct with the proceeds from corruption. In many countries, this system is operated by a financial intelligence unit. Fifth, BPKP studies the potential contribution of political parties, professional organisations, and business associations in minimising corruption. Their contribution could be through efforts to strengthen their codes of conduct by launching a contest among them. An NGO should organise the contest periodically. Sixth, a BPKP study identifies that the GOI has weaknesses in managing its fixed assets. The accounting system needed to support the management systems has not been developed properly. This situation leads the GOI to have many losses in assets (in terms of land). Seventh, BPKP does an institutional analysis regarding institutional capabilities for minimising corruption. The BPKP reviews the role of BPKP the Attorney General's Office, the National Police, and the Supreme Audit Board. The conclusion is that Indonesia needs an Independent Commission Against Corruption as the core institution for minimising corruption.

FORMULATION OF THE NATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION STRATEGY


Having finished the research described above, BPKP drafts the National Anti-Corruption Strategy. Naturally, information gathering and studies of corruption and analysis are still going on and the results will be used to update the strategy. So far, the draft of the strategy is described as follows :

• The Approach Used
  
  The approach used is the "business process" analysis. This analysis analyses the corruption process from the beginning to the end. This analysis is derived from objective situations in Indonesia. First, the facts show that there are a great deal of corruption exists and much of this is identified. This type of corruption should be eradicated through corruption/criminal justice systems that lead to a repressive strategy. This repressive strategy aims at the creation of efficient, effective and just criminal justice systems. Second, the facts also show that there are a great deal of corruption exists which has not been identified yet. Only the symptoms or phenomena derived from the corruption can be identified. This type of corruption can not be eradicated unless the corruption itself can be identified first. This leads to a detective strategy that aims at requiring all parties (government, private and community in Indonesia and the international community) to contribute to detecting or to identifying such corruption. After being identified, the corruption could be processed through the repressive strategy. Third, the facts show that new corruption always occurs whether the corruption could be identified or not. This situation leads to a preventive strategy that aims to prevent corruption from happening. The preventive strategy is aiming at the minimising the causes/drivers of corruption and the opportunities to do corruption. Based on this business process analysis, BPKP proposes a set of strategies that consists of a preventive strategy, a detective strategy, and a repressive strategy.
  
  
• Political Will
  
  It is known that the first thing to do to minimise corruption is that for the Indonesian nation to have strong political will to combat corruption. This political will should be "real political will", not just on the lips. From BPKP study, it is found that the People Consultative Assembly has determined the national political will officially and the people have showed their political will through many demonstrations, discussions and seminars through out the country. The study also found that the President has spoken publicly his political will and also has ordered his ministers to combat corruption, including reviewing and revising the anti corruption act. However, his minsters have not finished this order yet. Unfortunately, the study also found that the House of Representatives, the Supreme Court and the Supreme Audit Board do not show their political will clearly and strongly enough. They have not publicly announced their intent to combat corruption and also they have not prepared a systematic program within their jurisdictions to contribute to minimising corruption.
  
  
• The Entry Point
  
  As the entry point of the implementation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy several activities should be conducted. The objective of this entry point is to confine the people that the whole government is serious in eradicating corruption. The entry point will consists of several activities, such as:
  - Agreement on and socialisation of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy - Strenghten the House of Representative to be able to function properly and independently
  - Strenghten the Supreme Court to be able to function properly and inde- pendently
  - Establish an Independent Commission Against Corruption - Catch several big fishes
  
  
• Development of the Political Infrastructure
  
  The National Anti-Corruption Strategy does not comprise activities for developing political infrastructure in Indonesia. However, a more democratic political infrastructure is a prerequisite for the National Anti-Corruption Strategy to implement. Strong and independent House of Representatives and Supreme Court will create effective criminal justice system which it is an important part of the strategy in combating corruption. To develop such political infrastructure, several activities should be undertaken.
  
  
• Strengthening the House of Representatives
  
  Constitutionally, the House of Representatives is independent from other constitutional institution, such as President. The facts show that indirectly the President has the ability to remove some members of the House that vocally opposing the President. Therefore, the acts that give way to the President to influence the House should be removed in order to empower the House. Also, a fair election for new members of the House should be conducted. Lastly, a great number of resources should be made available to modernise the House, such as financial resources for financing House activities; expert staffs for supporting members of the House in executing their legislative power; consultants for developing better procedures in operating the House; financial resources for developing facilities of the House. The fact is that the financial budget of the House is highly controlled by the President. To be a good legislative body, the House should conduct comparative studies to the US Congress, Australian Parliament, and UK Parliament. Base on the studies, the House should improve their work methods to accomplish their tasks better. Beside do some comparative studies, the House should develop its code of conduct that should apply to members and employee within the House. To be more open, the House should has its own television channel to broadcast its activities throughout the country. It is similar to the US C-SPAN channel. Also, the House should develop communication media between the members ant their constituents.
  
  
• Strengthening the Supreme Court and its Courts system
  
  Constitutionally, the Supreme Court is independent from other constitutional institution, such as President. However, since the Supreme Court has close relationships in judicial process with the lower level courts, such as Higher Courts and Lower Courts, dependencies of the lower courts to the President erodes its independence. Lower courts are not independent from the President because their human resource management, financial management and other administration matters are controlled by the Ministry of Justice who is part of the President's cabinet.To improve Supreme Court's independence, legislation should be revised to give the lower courts more independent in managing their resources and administration. To control the judicial system, decisions made by the courts should be easyly and costlessly available to public. It is not happening in Indonesia, right now. Therefore, modernisation in the court administration should be undertaken to make all court decisions available to public for scrutiny.

NATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION STRATEGY

• Preventive Strategy Within the preventive strategy, several preventive measures has been identified, and for each of them has been defined its objectives, activities, institutions (governmental and private institutions) in charge and also the time frame. The preventive strategy is aiming at the minimising the causes/drivers of corruption and the opportunities to do corruption.
  
  
• Strenghtening the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court Entry Points) As described under the political infrastructure development.
  
  
• Research and evaluation of the causes of corruption Comprehensive and in-depth research should be done to identify and to measure the extent of the causes of corruption. The research should be done periodically in order to measure to which the causes are being reduced. This is also part of the evaluation of the anti corruption progress.
  
  
• Development of public sector codes of conduct The development is to develop and improve codes of conduct of the civil service, governmental institutions, house of representatives, supreme court, etc. The House of Representatives should take leadership in this campaign by creating their own codes of conduct.
  
  
• Development of codes of conduct for political parties, professional organisation and business associations The development is to develop and improve codes of conduct of the political parties, professional organisations, and business associations. A NGO should take lead in doing a benchmarking for each of group.
  
  
• National campaign for eradicating corruption Anti corruption campaigns should be maintained throughout the country, involving religious leaders, NGOs, educators, government, political parties etc. The campaigns should be aimed at the implementation of "real" anti corruption values.
  
  
• Improvement of civil service human resource management system and salary Performance appraisal system used by civil service should be revised and improved to determine performances and competence. The financial and non-financial reward systems should be based on merit. Salary increase should be prioritized for good performers, and not be given to bad performers.
  
  
• Improving accountability system in government agency Every government agency should redefine its vision mission and objectives following up with a strategy to achieve them. Furthermore, it should determine its performance measurement and the targets should be achieved. Periodically, the agency should report its performance to the President who will report to the House of Representatives.
  
  
• Improvement management control system within government organisation Every government organisation should be encouraged to improve its organisation, systems and procedures, and reporting systems to minimise opportunities for corruption. A campaign for core values within the organisation is a requirement, too.
  
  
• Improvement fixed assets management system Developing institutional and accounting systems for managing fixed assets of the government. Policies and reporting systems should fulfil the minimum control systems standard requirements.
  
  
• Improving public service quality Policies to encourage government agencies that give services to public to measure the level of their customer satisfaction should be established. In implementing this strategy, government agencies are encouraged to follow the ISO-9000 quality standards. Contesting the level of customer satisfaction among similar and comparable agencies should be conducted. The government audit office should audit the system related to public service quality when conducting financial audit of government agencies.
  
  
• Other activities should be identified and developed further.
  
  
• Detective Strategy Within the detective strategy, several detective measures has been identified, and each of them has been defined its objective, the activities, institutions (governmental and private institutions) in charge and also time frame. This detective strategy aims at requiring all parties (government, private and community in Indonesia and the international community) to contribute to detecting or to identifying corrupt practices. After being identified, the corruption could be processed through the repressive strategy.
  
  
• Improvement in people complaint report system People (inside or outside the government) play the most important role in identifying or detecting corrupt practices. Therefore, systems that can channel what people know, identify, or detect to investigatory body should be developed. The system should give high level of confidence to the people that all information they give will lead to benefit the people as a whole.
  
  
• Development of the financial transaction reporting system Many corrupt practices directly or indirectly proceed with money or something that has value of money. Therefore, capability to trace money transactions will lead to the related corrupt practices. That capability is not existing yet in Indonesia, since there is no system that can be used to trace money transactions. In many countries, the system is operated by a financial intelligence unit. This activity is part of the anti money laundering strategy.
  
  
• Declaration of public official assets and liabilities Public positions that have an inherently high risk for involvement in corruption practices should be identified, then their holders should be required to declare their assets and liabilities periodically. The declaration should be reported to the ICAC (the new one), and the ICAC should administer and audit it on a random sampling basis.
  
  
• Participating in international anti money laundering movement As a member of the UN, Indonesia did ratify the Vienna Convention on money laundering. From that ratification, Indonesia will go further in fighting money laundering which that usually has very close relationship with corrupt practices. One of the probability is join the Asia/Pacirfic Group on Money Laundering as a member.
  
  
• Improvement in people identification systems In Indonesia, a person should have an ID. However, many cases show that a person can have more than one ID under different name. This situation create opportunities to the person to do corrupt practices without have risk to be identified accurately who he/she is. It opens wider opportunities to do wrong doings without any risk to be caught.
  
  
• Improvement of the ability of BPKP, IGs, and Regional Inspectorates in detecting corruption Auditors of the BPKP, Inspectorate Generals, and Regional Inspectorate have opportunity to identify corrupt practices during their auditing assignment. Therefore, a systematic analysis of certain corruption modes should be developed to identify indicators related to those corrupt practices. By training the auditors to evaluate such indicators, auditors' capability in detecting corrupt practices could be improved.
  
  
• Other activities should be identified and developed further.
  
  
• Repressive Strategy Within the repressive strategy, several repressive measures has been identified, and each of them has been defined its objective, the activities, institutions (governmental and private institutions) in charge and also time frame. This repressive strategy aims at the creation of efficient, effective and just criminal justice systems for corrupt conduct.
  
  
• Creating an Independent Commission Against Corruption (An Entry Point) Establishment of an act for setting up an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in Indonesia. This act also should re-regulate the authority of Attorney General, National Police, and BPKP in terms of corruption jurisdictions.
  
  
• Catch, prosecute and sentence several big fishes in very near term (An Entry Point) As the a starting flag of national efforts in eradicating corruption that will give moral supports throughout the nation, several real big corruptors should be investigated, prosecuted, and sentenced before the court.
  
  
• Determining priority of corruption should be eradicated Many types of corruption should be classified into manageable classifications and should be determined their priority for minimising them. Since corruption has been endemic in Indonesia, the combating corruption program should be undertake step-by-step.
  
  
• Implementing "prima facie" concept as the bases reversing the onus of the proof to the defendant of corruption offence The most difficult thing faced by the investigator and prosecutor of corruption cases in Indonesia is gaining evidence or proof of corrupt conduct before the court. The anti-corruption act (act number 3 of 1971) does not recognise reversing the onus of the proof to the defendant. Practices in the court also do not follow the prima facie concept. Therefore, the prosecutor loses many corruption cases in the court. To give some support to the investigator and prosecutor, the anti-corruption act should be revised to adopt the prima facie concept.
  
  
• Developing anti-corruption progress monitoring system In combating corruption people wants to know the result very soon. Therefore, systematic and integrated reporting system that present the whole progress and result of the implementation of the strategy should be developed. The reports should be available to the public. In this activity, the role of mass media is very important.
  
  
• Publication of corruption cases Many people in government and private sector do not know that their positions are very close to the causes/drivers of corruption and system that create opportunity to do corruption. Publication of corruption cases (includes their analysis in term of causes and opportunities involved) will create awareness among people that they could do something to mini mise the cases/driver of corruption and the opportunities to do corruption. Therefore, well-prepared corruption cases should be published.
  
  
• Improvement the criminal justice system The criminal justice system involves National Police, Attorney General, and Judge. All of them are ineffective, inefficient, and also corrupt to some extent. Therefore, programs that aim at capability building for all of them should be conducted.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL ANTI-CORRUPTION STRATEGY

• Implementation The National Anti-Corruption Strategy will become the framework in combating corruption nation-wide. Each element of the nation will determine what its appropriate role is and then plays its role very deeply. This framework encourages the right element of the nation plays its right role in the right way.
  
  
• For each activity, who will be the party or parties in charge for the implementation should be agreed upon. It can be government agencies, NGOs, private sector or others, depends on the type of activity. This strategy shows that not only the government that should actively implement the strategy. All element of the nation should actively involve in implementing the strategy.
  
  
• To what extent the implementation will be undertaken is depend on the capability of the in charge party or parties and also depend on the availability of their resources.
  
  
• Gaining Support from People To gain support from the whole elements of the nation, the National AntiCorruption Strategy has been distributed at free of charge to several thousands parties (government agencies, NGOs, private sector, individuals and others). Following this distribution, BPKP expects to receive comments, critics, and suggestion from people through mail, facsimile, and e-mail. BPKP will conduct seminars and workshops to socialised the National Anti-Corruption Strategy. In those activities, BPKP will invite government agencies, NGOs, private sector, individuals and others to participate.
  
  
• Legal Aspect and Implementation Preparation To implement the National Anti-Corruption Strategy, several preparation should be done:
  - Establishment of several acts required to support the strategy.
  - Allocation of the state budget to support the strategy.
  - Allocation of civil servant resources to support the strategy.

EXPECTED ASSISTANCES
FROM INTERNATIONALLY RESPECTED ORGANISATIONS AND PEOPLE


It is an excellent opportunity for BPKP to have some in-depth sights from internationally respected expert in anti-corruption. In this occasion, BPKP expects some assistances from internationally respected organisations or people, such as:

• to have some general comments, critics, or sugggestion on this summary of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy prepared by BPKP,
  
  
• continuesly correspondencies in technical aspects of the development of national integrity appropriate for Indonesia.

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  Critics, Comments, or Inputs:
  please, send it to BPKP Mail : Kotak Pos 1117, JAKARTA-10011, Indonesia,
  or Faksimile : 62-21-8564002
  E-mail : This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
  

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• In Indonesia, BPKP (in English is The Financial and Development Suprevisory Agency) is responsible for auditing all activities financed by state budget, local government budget and state owned companies. BPKP is an internal auditor of the government, that reports to the President. BPKP is not the Supreme Audit Board. The latest is an external auditor of the government, that has an equal position to the President and the House of Representatives. When BPKP finds an indication of corruption practices during its audits, BPKP should do a special audit focusing on these matters to identify more accurately the corrupt practice indications. The report of the special audits, then, should be given to the Attorney General's office that has the authority to investigate and to prosecute corrupt practices.

BADAN PENGAWASAN KEUANGAN DAN PEMBANGUNAN
The National Anti-Corruption Strategy: Summary