Bhure Lal, Corruption: Financial Anarchy in Governance (New Delhi: Siddharath Publications, 2002) TI India: www.ti-bangladesh.org/ti-india/ Notes 1. Indian Express (India), 7 May 2004. 2. The Hindu (India), 2 May 2004. 3. Indian Express (India), 2 May 2004.
Indonesia Corruption Perceptions Index 2004 score: 2.0 (133rd out of 146 countries) Conventions: UN Convention against Corruption (signed December 2003; not yet ratified) UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (signed December 2000; not yet ratified) Legal and institutional changes • The long-awaited anti-corruption commission was set up in December 2003. The commission has powers to try corruption cases over IDR 1 billion (US $106,300) to coordinate corruption prevention, to oversee the investigation and trial of corruption cases by prosecutors and police, to order a high-ranking public official under investigation to be released from his or her post, and to order banks to disclose suspicious transactions and freeze accounts. The commission can also take over corruption investigations from police and prosecutors that drag out – a common symptom of corruption in Indonesia. At the time of writing the commission had received 800 corruption cases from the public. Its first case involved alleged corruption by the governor of Aceh province. The limited size of the commission and the protracted process of creating it, however, gave rise to concerns about the degree of political commitment to this institution. • A presidential decree on public procurement was issued in December 2003 to replace regulations existing from 2000. The decree prescribes the establishment of a national procurement office as an oversight body for all public procurement. New rules require full disclosure of all bidding information. Bidding procedures are to be announced in the press at least one month before a deadline for submitting bids. The decree allows civil society to monitor the procurement process. Pre-qualification of bidders is restricted. However, the decree still allows for direct appointment of contractors in emergency situations. As the definition of what constitutes an emergency is not specified, this opens loopholes for government officials to delay procurement until it is too late to conduct a proper bidding process. At the time of writing, the national procurement office was yet to be established. • In October 2003 parliament passed a law on money laundering to amend existing legislation from 2002. This followed criticism of the 2002 law from the OECD’s Financial
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