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Aid allocation lacks
transparency
By Fabio Scarpello
JAKARTA - Indonesian activists are busy
lobbying that mechanisms for transparency and
accountability be put in place to ensure that
billions of dollars in aid for the tsunami
disaster will go to the right people, in the right
way.
On the heels of a meeting of world
leaders and donors in the Indonesian capital,
Jakarta, development officials and activists say
that ways to receive, use and monitor aid in the
country - which has the highest death toll among
the more than 150,000 dead from the December 26
disaster - are as important as the huge amounts of
money expected.
Since the relief
operations started, goods and money have been
pouring into Aceh, the hardest-hit province at the
northern tip of Sumatra Island, under the
supervision of the central government. But given
the chaotic situation and the collapse of Aceh's
local administration two weeks after the killer
waves struck - more than 98,000 people have been
reported dead in Aceh - there is no clear idea of
what has been received so far.
Such a
situation makes the it virtually impossible to
monitor the way aid is being allocated. "You
cannot control what you do not know," said Emmy
Hafild, secretary general of Transparency
International Indonesia.
Campaigners also
say the tsunami disaster has further weakened
control systems in the government and increased
the danger of graft, although some
foreign-development officials said proper systems
would help ensure the transparent release and use
of aid resources.
Pledges of financial aid
to tsunami-hit countries reached US$4 billion last
Thursday, after the donors meeting in Jakarta,
though the amount for Indonesia was not clear,
according to local media.
The Indonesian
government has pledged an immediate aid package of
$150 million for the country, and estimates that
$1.07 billion is needed in the next five years to
rebuild devastated areas.
Worried that
corruption could affect the use of aid, activists
are pushing for representation in aid management
by the Acehnese and not just by the central
government in Jakarta, which is viewed with
suspicion by many in a province that for decades
has been home to a separatist movement.
"An all-embracing team should be entrusted
with the monitoring of the funds," said Luky
Dyani, vice coordinator of Indonesia Corruption
Watch, calling for a role for civil society in the
post-disaster operations. This team, Dyani said,
should include some representatives from Aceh,
international organizations, local non-government
organizations as well as members of parliament.
At the moment, the Indonesian House of
Representatives has assigned the monitoring task
to a team of 20 legislators. It has also suggested
that the finance minister, Jusuf Anwar, be the
only one channeling the distribution of
international donations.
However,
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has made
the fight against corruption a priority of his
five-year term, has said he will personally
control and direct the use of aid funds. "From the
beginning, I have said all assistance must be
handled with transparency and accountability," he
told reporters this week.
Indonesia
Corruption Watch has announced that it will
conduct independent monitoring of the management
of tsunami-related aid.
The concern about
corruption and mismanagement stems from experience
in Indonesia, said Transparency International's
Hafild. It has happened in virtually every
emergency situation in the past and, unless steps
are taken, it will happen again."
In 2004,
Indonesia was rated the most corrupt Asian country
for business by the Hong Kong-based Political and
Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. In the same year,
Berlin-based Transparency International judged it
as the 14th-most-corrupt country in its global
Corruption Perceptions Index.
Indonesia
Corruption Watch said Aceh, a theater of civil war
since 1976, accounted for almost half of the
estimated Rp2.7 trillion ($290.3 million) of
national revenue lost to corruption by the end of
August last year. Aceh's current governor,
Abdullah Puteh, is facing trial on charges of
having taken money meant for the local villagers
to buy a helicopter and for personal gain.
International organizations and donor
countries have acknowledged the risk of
corruption, but Australian Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer told reporters: "I think the
mechanisms we have to monitor and protect the
integrity of our aid programs work pretty well
here, as they do elsewhere."
Stephane
Jaquenet, deputy regional representative for the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
said that while the Indonesian government will
play the biggest role in handling the funds, the
allocation could be discussed from sector to
sector. "It does not mean that because there is
money available it will be handed over in a big
lump sum," he said.
Dyani and Hafild agree
that the bigger risks lie ahead - once the
life-and-death emergency phase is over and
reconstruction of the affected areas start. They
suggested that a proper bidding system be quickly
put in place.
"Bidding can be organized
very fast and contracts should be allocated to the
best bidder," said Hafild, warning that regular
procurement procedures are reportedly being
bypassed and may allow companies with political
connections to get undue advantage in
reconstruction work.
Bivitri Susanti,
executive director of Legal Reform Organization,
called for the immediate lifting of the civil
emergency in Aceh, which she said creates an
environment that favors corruption.
"It
gives the government the opportunity to put a
blanket of secrecy over the process," she said. "I
am afraid that a big chunk of aid will be bitten
off."
The Indonesian Human Rights Campaign
(TAPOL) and the East Timor Action Network have
also been asking President Yudhoyono to replace
the status of civil emergency with one of
humanitarian emergency and restore civilian
supremacy in Aceh.
"We have to avoid the
complacency that could derive from having such a
large amount of goods and money," Jaquenet said.
But the priority at the moment is to help the
people on the ground. "Let's remember that we are
still in the emergency phase," he said.
(Inter Press Service) |
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