Jakarta, Dec 19 (Antara) - Corruption and illegal levies committed to stealing state money that could be used for funding national development have been a common practice in Indonesia since time immemorial.
Corruption is rampant among officials in the upper levels, while illegal levies are mostly issued at lower levels, or even in the grass roots, particularly in the public service sector.
In response to corruption, the government of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri set up the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in 2002 to fight corruption throughout the country.
Since then, the KPK has sent many corrupt high ranking officials, politicians, law enforcement officials, and others to jails.
However, while corruption still continues to take place, illegal levies, which are imposed upon those in the public service sector, remain rampant across the country.
Therefore, the government last October began staging a war against illegal fees and formed what is call 'Satgas Saber Pungli' or illegal levies eradication task force.
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) set up the Stagas Saber Pungli on October 28, 2016 to fight illegal levies at the lower levels, in tandem with the fight against corruption by the KPK at the upper levels.
The president assigned Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Wiranto as the PIC of the Satgas Pungli in cracking down on illegal levies. The task force is chaired by Commissioner General Dwi Priyatno of the Police general supervision inspectorate (Irwasum).
Since it was established last October, the Satgas Saber Pungli task force has recorded 22 arrests in various institutions and agencies, both in the central and regional governments.
Now, the government is going all out to curb illegal levies in many institutions. Even as the president was discussing efforts to crack down on illegal fees, police had earlier arrested officials, after they were caught collecting illegal levies at the offices of the Ministry of Transportation.
"We discussed the operation mounted against illegal levies. We received a report from the National Police chief that some officials of the Ministry of Transportation were arrested on charges of collecting illegal levies on shipment documents," President Jokowi confirmed, after inspecting the search operation at the Ministry of Transportation on October 11.
According to Wiranto, the Saber Pungli illegal levies eradication task force has received 17,600 reports on illegal fees since last October. The coordinating political, legal and security affairs minister announced this during a Saber Pungli campaign event at the National Monument in Jakarta on Sunday.
He said the number was significant. "What does it mean? The public is aware that the task to eradicate illegal fees is not only the responsibility of the task force, but also the public has to actively participate by reporting illegal fees they are faced with, " he said.
Most of the reports, he said, were related to permit issuance, administrative documents, land certificates and passports.
He noted that the campaign against illegal levies was important because such payments had become entrenched in local culture, thus people tolerated them. "The Saber Pungli task force is at the central government level, while in the provinces it is called the Saber Pungli unit," Wiranto said.
"There is a perception that Saber Pungli is an ad hoc task force. It's not true. We will work until the country is free of illegal fees, " he said.
Efforts to crack down on illegal fees are made without discrimination. The Saber Pungli, which stands for 'Sapu Bersih Pungutan Liar' and literally implies sweeping illegal fees as clean as possible, means conducting business without discrimination.
"As I have stated earlier, the Saber Pungli Team will act without discrimination, even the security apparatuses must first be clean," Wiranto said.
Earlier, the KPK arrested four officials in an operation. They were allegedly involved in an alleged illegal levy case with a Maritime Security Board (Bakamla) project on December 14, 2016.
One of the arrested officials is the deputy head of the Bakamla and an inactive prosecutor from the Attorney General's Office. He is being assigned at the Bakamla.
Regarding the arrest, Wiranto expressed thanks that the fight against illegal levies is being handled without discrimination, including those within the coordination of the office of the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, such as the Bakamla.
According to the coordinating minister, all security officers who are tasked to uphold public order and security must be clean from having accepted illegal fees. "It is impossible for us to clean something with dirty brooms. If the brooms are clean they will produce clean results. If they are dirty, it will leave dirt behind. Therefore, I am happy that officials of the Bakamla under the police institution were caught red handed," Wiranto said.
The government is willing to eliminate security officers who accepted illegal levies to prove to the public that it is taking stern actions against those committing crimes, such as accepting illegal fees or bribes.***2***(A014/ INE/o001)(T.A014/A/BESSR/O. Tamindael) 19-12-2016 11:45:3 |
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