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Aceh aid a test for corruption
capers
By Bill Guerin
JAKARTA - Indonesia, ranked among the
world's most corrupt countries, is ready to start
rebuilding its tsunami-devastated northernmost
province of Aceh.
The National Planning
Agency (Bappenas) released its reconstruction
master plan over the weekend. Set out in 12
published volumes, the plan covers four main areas
- restoring livelihoods, restoring the economy,
restoring infrastructure and last, but hardly
least, restoring local government.
With
more than US$4.4 billion already pledged from
abroad, not including private and corporate
donations, to pay for the mammoth reconstruction
task, concerns are mounting that some of the
donations will end up in the wrong pockets,
particularly after the imminent departure of
several foreign groups.
Implementation of
the plan - to be tasked to a new Aceh
Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Management Board
appointed by a presidential decree and ensuring
full accountability for each dollar spent under
intense domestic and international scrutiny - will
test to the full President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono's commitment and ability to fight
corruption.
Only days after the disaster
struck last December, Speaker of the People's
Consultative Assembly Hidayat Nurwahid warned the
government that it must ensure that aid did not
end up in the hands of corrupt officials with a
propensity to "fish for great catches in murky
waters".
Former US presidents Bill Clinton
and George H W Bush also raised the corruption
issue in a February meeting with Yudhoyono, who
assured them that Indonesia would channel aid
funds in a transparent, effective way.
Not just Indonesia
The
Massachusetts-based Kurtzman Group has studied
corruption in several countries and pointed out
that Indonesia is not alone. India, where hundreds
of villages were destroyed and thousands of people
killed by the tsunami, ranks 42nd in its study of
48 countries. India has extremely high levels of
corruption, serious problems with regard to
transparency, and inadequate financial regulation,
the group said. It does not overstate the case to
add that some Indian officials have been siphoning
off aid money for decades.
Malaysia,
ranked No 22, and Thailand, at No 23, scored much
better in the study than Indonesia and India, but
both are far from corruption-free. Getting things
done in these two countries often requires
"facilitation payments", or bribes, said Kurtzman.
And once those bribes are requested, there is very
little that can be done to stop them.
United Nations deputy special envoy
Erskine Bowles warned that problems should be
expected as the recovery period begins. "Any time
you have a disaster affecting this many people you
would have some isolated incidents of money not
ending up where it was intended to," he said in
Aceh on Friday.
Obstacle
course
Though graft is somewhat of an
industry in Indonesia, where many officials view
public office as a vehicle for private gain,
would-be corruptors appear to face a much more
serious obstacle course than normal in trying to
misappropriate funds intended for reconstruction.
The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) is working
with international groups to supervise and monitor
aid flows, US accountants Ernst & Young have
been retained by the Indonesian government to
audit foreign aid, and the Anti-Corruption
Commission (KPK) is to monitor reconstruction to
ensure that funds are not misused.
KPK
chairman Taufiqqurochman Ruki said all projects in
the government's blueprint must undergo formal
tender procedures and warned that KPK will expose
any irregularities that inflict losses on the
state. "We demand accountability and transparency,
including from the foreign donors that are helping
the Indonesian government, so the public will know
how much [aid money] has been gathered and how the
funds are being used," he said.
More than
115 legislative council members have been
implicated in corruption cases in 16 provinces -
Aceh, North and South Sumatra, West Sumatra,
Jambi, Bengkulu, Riau, Jakarta, Central Java,
South Sulawesi, Bali, East Nusa Tenggara, South,
Central and East Kalimantan, and Papua. Aceh has
long been seen as one of Indonesia's most corrupt
provinces. The ongoing operation to quell the
separatist Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, had in
essence left local authority in the hands of the
military (TNI), an institution that has been
blamed for much of the endemic corruption in Aceh.
In 2003, Rp4.06 trillion ($429.5 million)
was allocated to military operations in that
province - about three times the annual provincial
budget. However, a state-appointed auditor later
found that some $291 million had gone missing.
KPK was established in the same year, and,
unlike previous anti-graft bodies, was given the
power to prosecute. Its first big hit came with
the arrest of Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh, who is
currently under detention and awaiting trial at
the Anti-Corruption Court. Puteh is accused of
"self-enrichment" over the purchase of a Russian
helicopter in 2002.
Ruki has warned that
mismanagement and further corruption could boost
support for GAM. "I hope that projects will
proceed well and correctly, so as to be able to
turn off or completely curb the Acehnese people's
separatism."
All displaced civilians and
civil servants in Aceh must be registered to
prevent any parties from exaggerating their losses
in an effort to gain more funds, he added.
Global graft watchdog lends a helping
hand
Berlin-based Transparency
International (TI), a global corruption watchdog,
in a statement titled "Corruption Issues in the
Tsunami Relief Effort and Post-Tsunami
Reconstruction", asked rhetorically: Should the
fact that Indonesia is perceived to be the
fifth-most corrupt country (according to its rank
in TI's own Corruption Perceptions Index), be just
cause to prohibit aid, or certain types of aid, to
the country after the tsunami tragedy?
According to TI, the answer is no. The new
government should not be condemned because of high
corruption levels in the past, it said, and argued
that what is most important are the policies of
the current government, in particular, the level
of political will to practice good governance and
introduce anti-corruption reforms.
TI
worked with Bappenas on the master plan. The
group's deputy executive director in Indonesia,
Leonard Simanjuntak, said TI has already found
"some irregularities, such as in the construction
of barracks, some mark-ups on the prices and
numbers ... coming from some of the government
institutions".
He warned of the tendency
for certain officials to claim that, as this is an
emergency and the situation is not normal, some
precautionary procedures can be put aside. As a
result, government agencies might have become
careless about normal accounting procedures,
making it easier for irregularities to occur,
Simanjuntak said.
Knowing this, he argued
that TI cooperation with Bappenas should continue.
"We also try to influence them, so we're involved
in the working groups on transparency and
accountability and try to produce mechanisms and
procedures for accountability and transparency,
including auditing procedures, supervision
procedures," Simanjuntak explained.
Post tsunami shock and
awe
President Yudhoyono, who was elected on
an anti-corruption mandate, launched a major
anti-graft drive in December, urging government
officials to avoid family businesses and ensure
transparency in all state affairs. On the same
day, the KPK signed an agreement with the
country's 33 provincial governors under which they
pledged to report their wealth and support the
commission's efforts to curb corrupt practices.
"The level of corruption in our country is
very alarming, and I urge every state official to
lead by example in fighting corruption," Yudhoyono
said.
Even if the pre-aid-fund-flow
optimism and downplaying of the likelihood of
serious graft occurring were to be misplaced, and
foreign aid money is abused, there is still a
potential upside available for Yudhoyono should he
decide on a full shock-and-awe attack on the
culprits, regardless of favor and political
standing.
There could be very positive
spinoffs for a country that has seen five leaders
since 1998. Yudhoyono is the first leader to come
to power with a pro-business agenda, though the
president has said it will be impossible to
eradicate corruption, collusion and nepotism if
people in the government and the business
community continue with "the old ways of doing
business".
Conversely, if corruptors are
quickly arrested and put on trial, that could
signal meaningful progress on stamping out
bureaucratic corruption and other hindrances to
badly needed foreign investment. Indonesia could
then truly claim to be open for business.
But perhaps it's best to refer to what UN
envoy Bowles said when summing up the positive
aspects of the first three months of the relief
effort: "Yes, there have been glitches; yes, there
have been mistakes; yes, we have taken two steps
back, four steps forward - that is going to happen
in a disaster of this magnitude. But we have
accomplished a great deal."
Bill
Guerin, a Jakarta correspondent for Asia Times
Online since 2000, has worked in Indonesia for 19
years in journalism and editorial positions. He
has been published by the BBC on East Timor and
specializes in business/economic and political
analysis in Indonesia.
(Copyright 2005
Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us for information on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
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