Preventing and fighting corruption

Context

Since its establishment in 2003, the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has gained high national and international reputation due to its impressive track record in the prosecuting of corruption cases. In 2003, Indonesia’s Corruption Performance Index (CPI) was at 19 and in 2019, has risen to 40, on a scale from 0 being very corrupt, to 100 being not corrupt. Furthermore, between 2014 and 2018, KPK succeeded in returning 106 Million Euros to the state.  

Nevertheless, the systemic corruption that exists in Indonesia is considered to be the most prevalent factor obstructing development. It is largely the poorer segments of the population who suffer these conditions. According to estimates produced by KPK, the converted costs of corruption within the forestry and mining sectors alone amount to approximately two billion Euros per year. Particularly, the widespread corruption in the forestry sector boosts illegal logging and hampers the sustainable economic activity of land allocation and land utility. The effect also reaches the poor and disadvantaged sections of the population. Due to additional, illegitimate payment demands, their access to government services and resources are often blocked. Women in rural areas are especially affected by corruption in sub-national levels - also because they are particularly dependent on natural resources.

Despite numerous successes, corruption remains virulent in in Indonesia. In particular, the prevention of corruption cannot be as successful to date as the prosecution. This is partly because prevention work is generally less visible and demonstrable than repression; for example, the arrest and conviction of high-ranking politicians. However, KPK has successfully triggered the development of national strategies for corruption prevention as well as becoming the coordinator of the National Strategy for Corruption Prevention, STRANAS PK. 

Objective

The Indonesian government has improved corruption prevention at national and subnational levels.

Approach

This Indonesian-German joint cooperation focuses on the development and testing of innovative prevention measures at the subnational level and in the forestry sector. Existing digital approaches, such as the KPK's e-learning system and monitoring centre for prevention (MCP)-a subnational governance dashboard, also innovative digital corruption prevention applications such as JAGA, Integrity Apps will be continued.

The target group is the entire population of Indonesia with a special focus on the residents of the partner provinces Papua, West Papua and East Kalimantan. The mediators are the specialists and executives of the Indonesian Corruption Eradication Commission as well as specialists and executives in decentralised administrative regencies.

The approaches focus on three areas:

• Strengthening the Corruption Eradication Commission's Prevention Department, specifically the Corruption Prevention Department to be more efficient, coordinated, and strategic.
• Strengthening the corruption prevention of subnational governments in structurally weak provinces to directly benefit the (local) population.
• Anchoring of selected, proven, innovative measures to prevent corruption in the forestry sector, which consider gender issues, into national recommendations contributing directly to improving corruption prevention at the subnational level and stronger social support.

Results

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH has been cooperating with KPK since 2007 in the area of corruption prevention. The current project is building on previous cooperation results:

• With the help of an anonymous web based KPK whistle-blower system cases of corruption can be reported via the internet. Annually around 2,000 reports are received through the system.
• The Anticorruption Learning Centre (ACLC) has certified more than 800 anticorruption trainers from all over Indonesia.
• In four partner provinces, action plans were adopted with local governments under the Responsible Task Force known as the Korsupgah Action plan to improve administration activities as well as digitalisation of government services and planning processes. The implementation status in the previous partner provinces stands at 87.7 per cent (as at March 2018). This approach is now used by the KPK in 542 districts and municipalities in all 34 provinces.
• The Monitoring Centre for Prevention (MCP) which enables KPK to monitor the progress of the Korsupgah Action Plan on the subnational level.
• The JAGA mobile app provides a variety of data on the provision of services, including in public schools and health centres, and data on licensing as well as village funds across several pilot regions is being collected, consolidated and made accessible to the general public online. Currently, JAGA collects and shares information on 404,000 schools, 2,777 government hospitals, 10,051 health centres and 536 One Stop Service’s profiles as well as the profiles of 48,000 villages.