Score in Corruption Index Falls, Alarm bells ring for Corruption Eradication
Indonesia\'s score in the 2020 corruption perception index fell by three points from 2019. The decline, the second since 1999, should serve as a warning in efforts to eradicate corruption in the country.
By
kompas team
·5 minutes read
Indonesia\'s score in the 2020 corruption perception index fell by three points from 2019. The decline, the second since 1999, should serve as a warning in efforts to eradicate corruption in the country.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Various regulations regarding the procurement of goods and services and budget management in efforts to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic are believed to have partly contributed to the fall in Indonesia\'s score in the corruption perception index. However, the pandemic cannot be used to fully justify the drop in score.
The drop in the corruption perception index (CPI) score, the second since 1999, should raise alarms.
The index uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
The 2020 CPI unveiled by Transparency International Indonesia (TII) in Jakarta on Thursday (28/1/2021) shows that Indonesia has a score of 37 and is ranked 102nd out of 180 countries surveyed. The index uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
In the 2020 index, Indonesia’s score fell by three points from that recorded in 2019. In 2007, the country’s score dropped to 2.3 from 2.4 in 2006 (before 2012, the scale ranged from 0 to 10).
In the 2020 index, Indonesia’s ranking dropped by one spot to fifth in Southeast Asia, behind Singapore which has a score of 85, Brunei Darussalam (60), Malaysia (51), and Timor Leste (40).
The deputy chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for the 2015-2019 period, Laode M. Syarif, said that the decline in the CPI index indicated that the warning signal in the country’s corruption had turned “red” from “yellow” previously, because the fall in Indonesia’s score in 2020 was the first since 2008. It meant, said Laode, that the eradication of corruption in Indonesia was experiencing a setback. With a score of 40 in 2019, Indonesia\'s score should have risen to 42 or even higher, if there was an improvement in law enforcement, democracy and politics.
Cause
Responding to the decline in Indonesia\'s CPI, Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD said the controversy regarding the revision of the KPK Law, which was believed to weaken the eradication of corruption, could lead to bad perception although the facts were not entirely true. However, this created a bad perception in the eyes of the international community.
Apart from that, according to Mahfud, such a bad perception was also caused by the rampant reduction of jail terms by the Supreme Court against convicts in corruption cases. In fact, some of them were acquitted.
These regulations may have loopholes because they were issued in hasty to save the people.
The deputy chairman of KPK, Nurul Ghufron, said that the decline in Indonesia\'s CPI score may be caused by the issuance of government regulations in coping with Covid-19, such as those related to the procurement of goods and services. These regulations may have loopholes because they were issued in hasty to save the people.
"But, such loopholes were used as an opportunity to conduct corruption," said Ghufron.
However, the dean of the School of Law at the Gadjah Mada University, Sigit Riyanto, reminded that the pandemic should not be used as justification because unlike Indonesia, many other countries, which were also hit by the pandemic, did not experience a decrease in their CPI scores.
"The issue of corruption is about managing power. The public can see that the exercise of power is not based on accountability during the pandemic. For example, a number of government officials were arrested for their alleged embezzlement of COVID-19 relief funds. This shows that the problem is not due to the pandemic but more due to the mindset and how the power is managed,” he said.
According to Sigit, bad legislative practice and not listening to public aspirations also contributed to the decline in the 2020 CPI. Therefore, improvements must be made not only by improving budget accountability and changing the paradigm of budget management but also improving the quality of legislation and strengthening democracy.
Integrity factor
TII’s Secretary-General Danang Widoyoko said that the drop in Indonesia’s 2020 CPI score indicated that a number of policies were only based on economic and investment perspectives without paying attention to the aspect of integrity triggered corruption, including in handling the Covid-19 pandemic.
Danang said the biggest decline in the Indonesian CPI indicator in the Global Insight and PRS International Country Risk Guide was triggered by corruption practices such as illegal fees commonly paid by businesspeople to public service providers to facilitate their business activities.
"In terms of democracy, the decline in the Varieties of Democracy Project shows that political corruption is still profound in the political system in Indonesia," he said.
However, Danang said that there was an increase in Indonesia’s score in the World Justice Project-Rule of Law Index, which indicated that there was an improvement in the rule of law.
Meanwhile, Presidential spokesperson Fadjroel Rachman said in a written statement that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo was firm in creating an anti-corruption government. "The President always asks ministries and institutions as well as all implementers of government policies and programs to prevent corruption," he said.
The president, he said, also supports law enforcement agencies to take action against perpetrators of corruption indiscriminately in accordance with regulations. (PDS/REK/NTA)
(This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi).