Sometimes, you’ve just got to laugh at what goes on out here. People living in countries outside Indonesia, must think us folks living here, have the word ‘corruption’ on the brain. The thing is, whether its the guy working the gas pump, the nightclub barman who doesn’t give your chance back, or the Kalimantan police and army, who had 13km pipiline to fill up super-tankers at night, there are a lot of people ‘working a little fiddle’.
Indonesian President SBY was in Cebu, in the central Philippines, last week, taking part in the ASEAN conference. Unknown to him, one of his staff was working hard, to get an angle on the accommodation charges. Here’s more from the Jakarta Post.
Graft claim embarrasses RI in Cebu
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesian staff attached to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s trip to Cebu, the Philippines, for last week’s ASEAN summit, are accused of asking hotel managers to mark-up official expenses.
Staff from the Indonesian State Secretariat reportedly asked the management of the Shangri-La Hotel in Mactan, Cebu, to increase the listed price charged to the presidential party and offered to split the profit with the hotel’s employees.
“A delegation member came and asked the hotel manager to increase the total expenses that the Indonesian delegation had to pay,” a source with the hotel’s operational affairs told The Jakarta Post.
The manager rejected the request and suggested that the Indonesian staff not humiliate their country further.
“Instead of backing off, the staff offered the manager 40 percent of the margin. But the manager insisted on rejecting the offer,” the source said.
He said that while delegations from Cambodia and Laos, much poorer countries than Indonesia, were attending the summit, only Indonesia’s staff had attempted to bribe the hotel.
Yudhoyono’s contingent to Cebu comprises more than 100 people, including several journalists. The room rate at the Shangri-La is between US$250 and $400 a night. The President regularly travels abroad with a large staff.
Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng denied the allegations, saying it would have been illogical for the staff to ask for a markup as they knew the hotel had charged all delegates the same rate.
“All ASEAN delegates stay at the same hotel with the same rate. It is impossible for the hotel to apply different rates. All of us know this,” he told the Post.
Indonesian Corruption Watch coordinator Teten Masduki described the incident in Cebu as “humiliating” for Indonesia, saying that it was just the tip of the iceberg of the country’s corruption problems.
He said marking up travel expenses had become the culture among government officials in Indonesia.
“It’s like exposing Indonesia’s prevalent corruption to the international community. But we must admit that it is a public secret that most officials do markups when traveling abroad or out of town,” Teten told the Post.
He said the audit system for travel expenses needed be improved to enable it to track and counter such practices.
Chairman of House of Representatives Commission I for security and international affairs Theo L. Sambuaga asked the government to investigate the markup allegations and to take harsh action to prevent a repeat.
“The perpetrator must be punished if he or she is proven to have been conducting markups. Tough action will send signals that it is not tolerated,” he told the Post.
