Presiden Joko Widodo Tanggapi Revisi UU KPK

Ketua KPK Serahkan Tanggungjawab Kepada Presiden

Eksklusif: Dialog Basuki Tjahaja Purnama bersama Aiman Witjaksono

Konspirasi Dana Siluman APBD Mencakup Banyak "Pemain"

Rapat Fasilitasi Mediasi Evaluasi RAPERDA DKI Jakarta Tahun Anggaran 2015

Gubernur DKI Jakarta Beberkan Permainan Anggaran APBD

Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

Corruption Perceptions Index 2013

The Corruption Perceptions Index 2013 serves as a reminder that the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery continue to ravage societies around the world.

The Index scores 177 countries and territories on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). No country has a perfect score, and two-thirds of countries score below 50. This indicates a serious, worldwide corruption problem.

Hover on the map above to see how your country fares.

Hover on the map above to see how your country fares. - See more at: http://www.transparency.org/cpi2013/results#sthash.f3vikl6U.dpuf

Hover on the map above to see how your country fares. - See more at: http://www.transparency.org/cpi2013/results#sthash.f3vikl6U.dpuf

Transparansi Internasional : Indeks Korupsi Sektor Pertahanan Indonesia Mencemaskan

Transparansi  Internasional  Inggris belum lama ini telah merilis hasil survei global  terkait indeks korupsi. Dalam survei  tersebut,  Indonesia  diberi nilai E, satu tingkat diatas nilai terendah, dalam GovernmentDefense Anti Corruption Index. Skor ini berarti bahwa Indonesia dikategorikan korupsi dengan “resiko sangat tinggi.”  Hal ini  dipertanyakan oleh Wakil Ketua Komisi I DPR, Ramadhan Pohan terkait validitasnya.

Menurut Ramadhan hasil survei tersebut tak berdasar. “Siapa yang terlibat, dimanakah buktinya? Jika seseorang menuding tanpa menyajikan bukti, itu adalah tindakan tirani,” ujar Ramadhan, seorang legislator dari Partai berkusa, Demokrat.

‘The missing piece in a smart government’

Chinese evening newspaper Lianhe Wanbao broke the story on CPIB's probe of two top-ranking government officials. …

It was a memorable and bold moment in Singapore journalism. Earlier this week, a dogged reporter's patience and persistence combined with a brave editor's decision to throw caution to the wind ended in an exclusive that brought back memories of the good old days of old-fashioned reporting — and put the government in an embarrassing spot.

The Chinese evening newspaper, Lianhe Wanbao, went ahead with a report on the corruption investigations into the activities of two top public service officers — Singapore Civil Defence Force chief Peter Lim Sin Pang and Central Narcotics Bureau chief Ng Boon Gay — without a government confirmation.

It named names and gave details, like the involvement of a woman in the scandal, knowing fully well that there was a chance — a very small chance, maybe — that it could get some important details wrong. When the government statement came — on the same day but after the paper had published the report — the news had already caught fire with the on-line world hammering out posts and reports and raising pointed issues that ranged from transparency to arrogance.

The most damaging statement, unintended though it was, came from the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau. In response to media queries, it said that the narcotics man was arrested on Dec 19 and the civil defence boss on Jan 4, many days before the government put out its statement on Jan 24.

It was too long a lapse and was made worse by the rapid-fire news cycle punishing even those who take a couple of hours to come out with its side of the story. Why this long delay? In response to a query by The Straits Times, the government said the investigations are continuing and "it is only fair that we accord the officers assisting with investigations a fair hearing in accordance with the civil service disciplinary process and the law."

It is understandable that you want to give those involved, especially when the investigations are still on-going, a good shot at fair play. That occasion passed when the two were arrested. That was the moment when officialdom should have bitten the bullet and said: The tipping point has been reached. And we have to go public with the story.

But it remained silent until the unlikeliest of sources — the traditional media, fed by a regular diet of press releases and official speeches — put the story in the public domain. The end result: A government caught with its back against the wall and in a reactive mode.

High pay and low corruption

When the Parliamentary debate on political salaries took place from Jan 16 to 18, the one critical point that never came up was that of a clean Cabinet and civil service. The silence on this issue was understandable because corruption in high places in government is extremely rare.

But this new development, where two very senior public service officials were under investigation for "serious personal misconduct", could have been brought up and could have added a new dimension to the debate. The salary-corruption link is important.

High pay was one way to discourage officials from wanting to have their palms greased. Lee Kuan Yew highlighted that point when he pushed vigorously for top salaries. No reasonable-minded Singaporean would have expected a corrupt-free public service, even with high pay; those who want to get round the laws will always find loopholes to exploit. But you can make sure that corruption cases are as rare as possible. And that corrupt officials, once exposed, will face the full brunt of the law. Even ministers have not been spared.

Former National Development Minister Teh Cheang Wan, who was praised by Lee Kuan Yew a number of times, chose to end his life when he faced the heat of an unyielding group of anti-corruption officers way back in the 1980s.

Making the CPIB report directly to the PMO gives them the latitude and freedom to investigate even the high and mighty without too many encumbrances. All these could have made the Parliamentary debate more meaningful and relevant.

But an opportunity to explain the historical backdrop and context to Singapore's war on corruption was lost. The ruling party kept silent; so did the Opposition. I am more inclined to sympathise with the members of the Opposition because there was no way for them to have information on the latest investigations.

Lessons not learnt

Since GE 2011, the government seems to be on its backfoot with communication blunders becoming a regular occurrence. From the Mas Selamat case (official statement was issued four hours after the terrorist escaped from the Internal Security Department's detention centre) to the wrong signatures on YOG appreciation certificates (Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said that it was an embarrassment but not a disaster) to the PAP's electoral defeat in Aljunied (Lee Kuan Yew warned residents that they will repent if Opposition won), it is clear that the government has yet to get a handle on how to communicate effectively in a new world. That is really strange.

This is not a stupid government, it has done a lot of good things for its people, it is respected overseas and its model of governance is highly sought after. Yet, one of the basic attributes of a smart government -- squaring with its citizens and carrying them along -- seems to be missing.

P N Balji has more than 35 years experience as a journalist. He is now a media consultant.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com

INDONESIA TO USE E-AUDIT SYSTEM IN WESTERN PROVINCE

The Supreme Audit Agency (Badan Pemeriksa Keuangan) will be using an electronic audit system to reach the isolated towns of West Papua as part of the agency’s move to enhance and improve the financial accountability of government institutions.West Papua is a province of Indonesia covering the western peninsula of the island of New Guinea and has a population of 761,000 people. 

  

The e-audit system, which has already been implemented in other regions, would enable financial reports from the local administration, the central government, and relevant state firms to be uploaded to the agency’s database. 

The system would establish a link-and-match relationship between the government and parties related to state financial management and the Supreme Audit Agency. 

With the system, the government will be able to check and monitor state finances, and track irregularities in the financial reports more efficiently According to Supreme Audit Agency Chief Hasan Bisri, the e-audit system is urgently needed in West Papua because financial reports from the region were often late and not properly made. 

He added that the number of local administrations in West Papua had more than doubled in the last five years. The number of auditors, meanwhile, had always been limited, “Through this system, we will be able to study and prevent state losses earlier, and also improve the province’s financial accountability and transparency” he said. 

futuregov.asia

Indonesia's Sea Games overshadowed by corruption allegations

Indonesia is finalising preparations for the opening of the South East Asian Games - or Sea Games. 

They are being held in the city of Palembang on the island of Sumatra - the first international event of this scale to be held outside the capital.However, the games have already been dogged by allegations of corruption and the construction of sporting venues and the athletes complex have lagged behind schedule.Indonesia Correspondent, Karishma Vaswani reports.
BBC

It's business as usual when it comes to companies paying bribes

The Bribe Payers Index reveals the 'supply side' of corruption, sharing the blame between developed and developing countries Companies from the world's most powerful economies are still thought to routinely pay bribes when doing business abroad, despite a steady stream of new laws and international commitments to stamp out foreign bribery, according to an index that aims to balance the "blame" for corruption between developed and developing countries. Russia and China, which together invested some $120bn overseas in 2010, are ranked the lowest in the latest Bribe Payers Index, published on Wednesday by anti-corruption campaign group Transparency International. Firms from other "emerging economies" – including Mexico and Indonesia – are also among those seen as most likely to bribe abroad.

While many of the world's traditional economic powers continue to suffer from little to no growth, emerging economies have gained mushrooming attention around the world for dramatic growth forecasts and increasing levels of trade and foreign investment – particularly in some of the world's poorest countries. According to the Chinese ministry of commerce, for example, China's investment in Africa increased by 565% over the past seven years.

Wednesday's index, which relies on a global survey of 3,016 business executives, ranks the world's 28 leading export countries on the perceived likelihood that their firms pay bribes overseas. Countries are scored on a scale from 0 to 10: the more a country's companies are thought to engage in bribery abroad, the lower the score. First published in 1999, the index attempts to fill in an otherwise partial picture of global corruption, where a seemingly steady stream of reports of corrupt public officials in developing countries is met by relatively little about those who pay the bribes in the first place. It aims to balance the blame between the bribe-givers and the bribe-takers, and to monitor commitments from the world's richest countries to control what economists call the "supply side" of corruption. In this year's index, the Netherlands and Switzerland earn the highest scores, with Dutch and Swiss companies seen as least likely to bribe abroad. But none of the 28 economies covered by the index is seen to have a wholly clean business sector and there has been no improvement overall since the index was last published in 2008.

Six countries – Argentina, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates – were included in this year's index for the first time and all fall in the bottom half of country rankings. Recent legislation in G20 states has given some campaigners hope that the recent explosion of public interest in corruption might help stamp out foreign bribery – both Russia and China have recently passed laws criminalising foreign bribery by firms headquartered in their countries.

Demonstrators put 600 green brooms on Copacabana beach to protest against corruption in Brazilian politics. Photograph: Rex Features

But eight years after the high-profile adoption of the UN convention against corruption, observers say there has been little real progress. Four G20 countries – Germany, Japan, India and Saudi Arabia – have yet to ratify the UN convention. Little progress has also been made on the older OECD anti-bribery convention: a 2011 progress report found that 21 out of the 38 signatories – including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey – have rarely, if ever, enforced the convention.



Meanwhile, promises by G20 countries at last year's summit in Seoul, South Korea, to develop an "effective global anti-corruption regime" have been criticised for lacking details and concrete deadlines. The G20 anti-corruption working group is expected to publish the findings of its first monitoring report on Thursday, the start of this year's G20 summit in Cannes. Much like Transparency International's more well-known Corruptions Perceptions Index, Wednesday's report is based on experts' perceptions rather than concrete evidence of bribery.

Hard data on corruption is understandably difficult to come by. Hard evidence about the full impact of bribery on developing countries' economies is largely anecdotal or based on individual case studies. Earlier this year Benjamin Olken from MIT and Rohini Pande from Harvard reviewed the latest academic evidence on corruption and found "more questions to pose than concrete answers". We've pulled out the rankings and country scores for both the 2011 and 2008 editions of the Bribe Payers Index. What can you do with the data?

guardian.co.uk

Kejagung Kebut Usut Dugaan Korupsi e-KTP

e-KTP (VIVAnews/Ikhwan Yanuar)

Kejaksaan Agung mengaku serius membongkar dugaan korupsi dalam proyek pembuatan Kartu Tanda Penduduk Elektronik (e-KTP). Saat ini, penyidik Kejaksaan sedang bekerjasama dengan Badan Pengawasan Keuangan dan Pembangunan (BPKP) merumuskan bentuk perbuatan melawan hukum pada proyek e-KTP. 


"Tentu saja terkait kerugian negara karena itu permintaan BPKP untuk mengetahui berapa kerugian negaranya," kata Direktur Penyidikan Jampidsus Kejagung RI, Arnold Angkouw, usai seminar Penguatan Pemberantasan Korupsi Melalui Tugas Koordinasi dan Supervisi KPK di Jakarta, Kamis, 27 Oktober 2011.

Arnold mengaku cukup kesulitan membuktikan adanya korupsi dalam proyek e-KTP. Alasannya, penyidik harus keliling daerah terlebih dahulu, ke kabupaten, atau kota. "Supaya lebih jauh persis bagaimana kualitasnya, baru bicara teknisnya, sehingga bisa kita klasifikasi perbuatan melawan hukum," jelas dia.

Meski demikian, Kejaksaan Agung berjanji akan bergerak cepat mengungkap dan menyelesaikan kasus ini. Karena, kata dia, tuntutan masyarakat semakin hari semakin besar. "Memang kesulitannya dari sisi teknis. Harus bisa dibuktikan sehingga ada kerugian negaranya, ini yang bikin lama," kata dia. Terkait proses hukum terhadap empat tersangka, kata dia, saat ini proses itu masih berlanjut. "Yang jelas empat tersangka masih dalam proses. Mereka untuk sementara ini koperatif," tuturnya.

VIVAnews

Bermasalah, Proyek e-KTP Terindikasi Dikorupsi

Okezone.com

Pengamat politik UI Boni Hargens menjelaskan, modus kejahatan korupsi semakin canggih. Tindak pidana itu tak hanya terjadi saat proyek-proyek pemerintah berlangsung. Tetapi juga sudah terjadi sejak rencana anggaran itu disusun. ’’Masyarakat tak boleh terbuai dengan kasus-kasus yang ada. Banyak persoalan korupsi lain yang bisa muncul lagi,’’ terang dia. Dosen ilmu politik UI ini menyebutkan, persoalan e-KTP saat ini masih mengalami kendala berpeluang menjadi kasus kourpsi baru. Itu terlihat dari berbagai persoalan yang menghambat pelaksanaan e-KTP.

Apalagi, terang dia, anggaran yang dikucurkan dalam proyek tersebut juga cukup besar. Namun nyatanya, harapan terlaksananya proyek kependudukan itu masih jauh dari harapan. ’’Saya rasa pantas kalau KPK segera melihat perkara ini sebagai persoalan penting pula,’’ ujarnya. Boni menambahkan, dalam berbagai perkara terakhir ini memang kuat indikasi perkara korupsi yang terjadi sudah terencana baik.

Artinya kasus korupsi itu sudah disusun sejak jauh hari. Sehingga proses mengambil uang rakyat pun terasa tanpa hambatan. Modus-modus tersebut, lanjut dia, perlu diperhatikan banyak elemen masyarakat. Lembaga-lembaga penyidik negara pun harus lebih serius memantaunya. Sebab, perkara korupsi yang direncanakan itu menjadi lebih kabur dan sulit terdeteksi.

’’Kalau direncanakan berarti memang sudah ada niat. Akibatnya pun banyak hal yang menjadi dibodohi,’’ pungkasnya. Menurutnya sanksi bagi pelaku korupsi yang terrencana itu haruslah lebih berat lagi. Tak bisa disamakan dengan pelaku korupsi dengan modus biasa. Agar sejak awal tindakan perencanaan korupsi menjadi dapat ditekan.

Sayangnya, dugaan kasus korupsi e-KTP belum disentuh Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi. Dua pimpinan KPK, Haryono Umar dan Johan Budi, tak memberikan tanggapan sedikit pun. Berulang-ulang ponselnya dihubungi tak memberikan jawaban apapun. Sementara itu, Komisi II DPR RI akan memantau langsung penerapan e-KTP di daerah yang dianggap paling krusial pelaksanaannya. Masalah SDM dan sosialisasi jadi bom waktu kekacauan. ’’Kami sudah siapkan sampel lokasi untuk melakukan tinjauan,’’ kata Abdul Hakam Naja, Wakil Ketua Komisi II DPR RI, Minggu (2/10)

jpnn.com

Criticizing KPK, Politician Under Spotlight

Fahri Hamzah urges that Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission is shut down.

Add caption

Justice and Prosperous Party (PKS) politician, Fahri Hamzah is under the spotlight following his statement during the consultative meeting between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the House leaders. Fahri, who is Deputy Chairman of Commission III announced his intention to disband KPK.

His statement stirred up controversy. Some agreed with his opinion, but more denounced it and accused him of being against corruption eradication. In fact, this was not the first time he conveyed the idea. What is wrong between KPK and Fahri? Could this be related to corruption case where the defendant, former Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Rokhmin Dahuri pointed his involvement?

news.okezone.com

For information, Fahri reportedly had received Rp150 million from Rokhmin Dahuri. Fahri received the money during the period of between 2002 and 2004 from Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries’ non-budgetary funds. He claimed to have received the funds for composing Rokhmin’s speech. However, Fahri denied his motive of shutting down KPK was due to a certain sentiment.

"What does it have to do with the case? I was not hurt for being mentioned. Not necessarily everyone who does criticism is ever hurt," he said when contacted by VIVAnews on Wednesday. He also denied the allegation saying that he was put down because his colleague, Misbakhun, being declared as linking to Bank Century case.

Fahri said the base of his remark was the many issues surrounding the KPK. For example, the case of Bibit-Chandra, also the discordant relations among KPK, the National Police and Attorney General's Office (AGO) in combating corruption.

"The KPK was set up to go along with the police and prosecutors to combat corruption cohesively. But the fact is, the discordancy is very strong," he said. He also compared the achievements of KPK with similar institution in Hong Kong.

Hongkong’s anti-corruption institution managed to eradicate corruption in three years, so Indonesia’s KPK should have only taken two years, he said. KPK through its chairman Busyro Muqoddas, has directly addressed Fahri’s remark. "If Mr. Fahri has an agenda of disbanding KPK, we'll wait through PKS faction and others through legal channels. We are only implementing the mandate," said Busyro.

VivaNews.com

KPK Terus Kawal Proyek E-KTP

Boleh saja Kementerian Dalam Negeri mengklaim pihak mereka telah melaksanakan enam rekomendasi Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) pada program kartu tanda penduduk elektronik (e-KTP). Meskipun demikian, lembaga antisuap itu tetap akan mengawasi proyek tersebut hingga 2012 untuk mencegah adanya praktik korupsi.

Hal itu dikemukakan Wakil Ketua KPK Mochammad Jasin yang mengurusi bidang pencegahan kepada Media Indonesia, Rabu (5/10). "Yang terpenting bagi KPK adalah tidak ada praktik korupsi di dalam pengadaannya. Ini kan belum final pengadaannya dan masih ditelusuri," ujar Jasin saat ditemui di kantor KPK, Jakarta.

MediaIndonesia.com

KPPU Curigai Tender Program E-KTP

Komisi Pengawas Persaingan Usaha (KPPU) menyelidiki tender KTP Elektronik (E-KTP) senilai Rp5,84 triliun karena diduga ada persengkokolan proyek tersebut di sejumlah daerah. "Rincian nilai tendernya mencapai Rp5.841.896.144.999," kata Kepala KPPU KPD Surabaya, Dendy Rahmad, Jumat (30/9). Menurut dia, KPPU telah menindaklanjuti laporan yang masuk ke pihaknya pada tanggal 14 Juli 2011 dengan Nomor Laporan 131/KPPU-L/VII/2011 terkait dugaan persekongkolan tender pada proyek E-KTP.

"Penyelidikan ini berdasarkan tugas dan kewenangan kami yang diatur dalam pasal 35 juncto pasal 36 Undang - Undang Nomor 5 Tahun 1999 tentang Larangan Praktek Monopoli dan Persaingan Usaha Tidak Sehat," ujarnya. Setelah melakukan serangkaian klarifikasi, ia mengemukakan, sejak tanggal 28 September 2011 KPPU mulai meningkatkan laporan ini ke tahap penyelidikan.

"Penyelidikan ini bertujuan untuk memperdalam dan mengumpulkan bukti-bukti atas dugaan pelanggaran pasal 22 UU No.5/1999 terhadap potensi persekongkolan tender pelelangan pekerjaan penerapan KTP berbasis NIK Nasional (KTP Elektronik) tahun 2011," katanya. Ia menambahkan, dugaan tersebut melibatkan Terlapor I yakni panitia pelelangan pekerjaan penerapan KTP berbasis NIK Nasional (KTP Elektronik) tahun 2011. Lalu, Terlapor II yaitu Konsorsium PN dan Terlapor III Konsorsium AG.

"Sementara, pasal 22 UU No. 5/1999 mengatur bahwa pelaku usaha dilarang bersekongkol dengan pihak lain untuk mengatur dan atau menentukan pemenang tender sehingga dapat mengakibatkan terjadinya persaingan usaha tidak sehat," katanya. Sesuai kewenangan dan dugaan pelanggaran pasal tersebut, ulas dia, Tim Penyelidik KPPU akan fokus pada isu apakah terjadi persekongkolan atau pengkondisian pemenang tender.

MediaIndonesia.com

Corruption in India : A million rupees now

THE prime minister’s loyalty to his friends looks to be ever more a fault. This week parliament grilled Manmohan Singh over his latest failure to fight corruption and his habit of sticking with compromised allies. The grilling concerned P.J. Thomas, the man Mr Singh appointed to lead India’s fight against corruption.

Mr Thomas was, to put it politely, an unorthodox choice to lead the national “vigilance” commission. A former official in the scandal-besmirched telecoms ministry, he faces a longstanding charge over an import scam. He has done himself few favours by pointing out that 28% of sitting lower-house members of parliament also face criminal charges or inquiries. Worse was the government’s claim that a vigilance chief need not have an impeccable character (presumably on the grounds that it takes one to know one). On March 3rd the Supreme Court forced him out. The prime minister fended off opposition demands that he should resign.

His poor judgment over Mr Thomas fits a pattern. Nobody says the prime minister is personally corrupt. But he looks weak by seeming to let others steal. Last year the Supreme Court ticked him off and the opposition called for him to quit over the government’s failure to look into suspicious licensing of the 2G telecom spectrum. Now the Central Bureau of Investigation is starting an inquiry into corruption at the highest levels over the shoddily run Commonwealth games. Mr Singh, again, is bound to be embroiled.

The Supreme Court has its tail up. Its rulings refer ever more often to corruption—over 50 did so last year. Now it lambasts the government for failing to take on crooks who funnel “black money” overseas. Some say that $450 billion of ill-gotten gains or untaxed earnings are sitting in foreign banks. The court seems to imply that the Congress party, which heads the government coalition, has protected powerful friends.

On March 7th the hyperactive Supreme Court justices scored another victory, with the arrest of Hasan Ali Khan. A flamboyant horse-owner, he has been charged with money laundering, which he denies. He is alleged to have $8 billion stuffed in Swiss bank accounts.

India’s “season of scams” was launched late last year, thanks to the breakdown of an unspoken political truce in which no party fussed too much about corruption, allowing all to prosper from it. Now the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has broken ranks, betting that it can tap into widespread fury over corruption and so dent Mr Singh’s clean image, if not topple him. The BJP may be on to a good thing: over 80% of Indians tell pollsters that graft is worse than ever.

Though a general election is not due until 2014, and despite facing corruption scandals of its own, the BJP is pushing on. By boycotting parliament, it closed most of the winter session, until it won the inquiry into graft that it had demanded. In turn the press, the courts and street protesters picked up the campaign. The opposition may be keeping in mind an earlier defeat for Congress, in 1989, when voters punished the party over huge kickbacks that flowed from an arms deal with Bofors, a Swedish company.

In response, Mr Singh and his (and Congress’s) boss, Sonia Gandhi, say they will soon announce sweeping reforms. These may include state funding for political parties, the removal of discretionary powers abused by politicians and civil servants, and the ratification of a UN corruption convention. They might do well to look, too, at Bihar state, where elected officials and civil servants must now publish a list of all their private assets. Even more importantly, they could push on with cleaner ways to help the poor. By one estimate, two-fifths of state paraffin subsidies are stolen, earning a “fuel mafia” $2 billion a year. In Uttar Pradesh reportedly over $40 billion of food and other subsidies have been bilked over five years.

From the grassroots up

How all this will shake out at the polls will become clearer next month, when four states—West Bengal and Assam in the east, Tamil Nadu and Kerala in the south—hold assembly elections. Perhaps voters will punish dirty politicians. Too often, though, for all their harrumphing about ghotala (Hindi for scams), voters are swayed during election campaigns by candidates’ gifts of rice, rupees, saris and television sets.

Yet hopeful initiatives do exist among those truly fed up with corruption. Technology looks to provide especially promising solutions. Last year Swati Ramanathan helped to found a website, www.ipaidabribe.com. Indians post details of how they are forced to bribe. “Rather than moralise about corruption,” she says, “we need first to know the details of what is happening, and uncover its market price.”

In seven months the site has lodged 5,000 reports of paying bribes. On March 9th, for example, someone in Belgaum, Karnataka, admitted shame after giving 200 rupees ($4) to pass a driving test. In Mumbai it costs 1,000 rupees to register a baby. Bigger bribes are usually paid when land is at stake. Perhaps when Indians are better informed they will feel more empowered and refuse to pay. Reportedly, Bangalore’s transport commissioner likes the site too, as it lets him see how corrupt his junior officials have become.

More hopeful yet are reforms that take away the chance for officials to behave improperly. Gujarat’s anti-graft commissioner, Manjula Subramaniam, praises a tendering system where companies bid online for public contracts, for example for road-building. This helps her anti-graft department spot anything suspicious. She can also watch funds that sit unused in state coffers, and move them before any light-fingered officials get there.

For ordinary people, more obviously valuable is a four-year-old system for homeowners to assess property tax online, rather than have crooked inspectors visit their homes. And the benefits of technology are spreading fast, as every village in Gujarat has been hooked up to broadband and to state databases.

In one of them, Uvarsad, a farming district, a privately managed local e-government office allows Suryakant Patel to print off the title deeds to his 20-acre wheat and rice farm. It takes two minutes and a ten-rupee fee. Then he walks around the corner to a bank, to raise a loan to buy a new irrigation pump. In the past, he says, getting the deed would have taken days, and might have depended on the whim of a civil servant. Change can come fast, he reckons. Mr Singh, take note.

economist.com

Bangladesh team takes lessons from KPK

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Tuesday was visited by six representatives from the government of Bangladesh conducting a comparative study of Indonesia's fight against corruption. “They received orders from their prime minister to improve their Anti-Corruption Committee (ACC),” KPK deputy chairman Bibit Samad Riyanto said Tuesday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Bibit added that the ACC, the Bangladeshi equivalent of the KPK, had not been as effective as its Indonesian counterpart and was thus looking to the KPK for guidance, which the KPK was more than willing to help with.

“We shared information, including on their plans to improve their corruption elimination law and how to make ACC more independent,” he said.

The team of six Bangladeshi officials was led by Bangladesh Parliament delegate chief Suranjit Sengupta, and included Bangladeshi Ambassador to Indonesia Golam Muhammad.

thejakartapost.com

'E-governance plan will help curb corruption'

blogs.reuters.com

If all goes as planned, the state government's e-governance scheme will go a long way in reducing corruption in the public's everyday interface with the the administration, say bureaucrats.

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan's e-governance plan, which was unveiled on Wednesday, is aimed at curbing corruption in the state administration, say Mantralaya mandarins. The proposal makes extensive the use of computers mandatory in Mantralaya and other government offices.

"Chavan's aim to make e-governance mandatory in the all government department is aimed to reduce personal interaction of the public with government officials," a senior Mantralaya official said. "Minimizing such official and citizens interaction to a large extend will help in reducing corruption," the official added. "Within six to eight months, all state government departments will mandatorily have to use e-governance in their day-to-day operations," the official said.

For instance, a student seeking scholarship has to make several rounds of government offices; frustrated students have to finally 'bribe' clerks or touts to get their work done. However, with introduction of e-governance, students won't have to run from pillar to post and the money will be directly credited to his/her account. According to a senior government official the state government spends over Rs 1,000 crore per year on scholarships to nearly 15 lakh students.

Political observes feel that anti-corruption crusade by noted Gandhian Anna Hazare seems to have triggered Chavan's e-governance plan. Several years ago, Hazare had made accusation against several prominent politicians of state.

"The ruling DF is apprehensive that Hazare, buoyed by the phenomenal impact that his 12-day fast in New Delhi had on the nation, may now train his guns on Maharashtra, his home state. The emphasis on e-governance scheme is seen as Congress' move to neutralize the Hazare effect in Maharashtra," said a political observer.

Through e-governance, the government hopes to not only reduce paperwork but also benefit allied government departments. For instance, driving licence data with the transport department could be accessed by the police or the traffic department. The government also plans to have one main server where all the data would be stored instead of servers for each separate department.

Rajesh Aggarwal, secretary (Information Technology) said, "E-governance will enable various departments to synchronize data. This will not only result in paperless administration but also help government provide services to citizens at their doorstep or, in some cases, even at the click of the mouse.

"As the number of servers will reduce, the cost incurred on hardware, machines and maintenance too would come down. This will help government in saving good amount of money"

Meanwhile, in the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, a section of ministers raised objections over the existing software used for e-tendering and other government services.

"To this, following objections, Chavan said that National Informatics Centre (NIC) will now be looking into all matters regarding e-governance," said a senior Congress minister.

NIC is a premiere institution of union government that provides e-government solution to the government Sector.

Some of the benefits citizens can take once the e-governance is implemented in all departments.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/