ID :
114917
Sun, 04/04/2010 - 00:31
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https://oananews.org//node/114917
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REMUNERATION OF FINANCE MINISTRY EMPLOYEES `FOOLISH` POLICY : RAMLI
Jakarta, Apr 3 (ANTARA) - The government had acted "foolishly" in agreeing to give finance ministry employees special remunerations on top of their salaries, former economic affairs chief minister Rizal Ramli said.
He was commenting on the arrest of tax official Gayus Tambunan for involvement in a money laundering case worth Rp25 billion.
"With the special remuneration, the impression is created as if finance ministry employees are superior to government employees at the other ministries," Rizal said here on Saturday during a discussion titled "Remuneration, Corruption and Tax Brokering."
In reality, he said, there could be no "upper caste" or "lower caste" in the civil servants' corps. "There is no special class of civil servants," he added.
Rizal expressed regret that the government had continued giving special incentives to finance ministry employees by raising their salaries to a level nine times that of the rest of the civil servants corps while it had nothing to show to the public that progress had been made in the finance ministry's bureaucratic reform.
"Remuneration should be given to an institution which has proven successful in implementing bureaucratic reform. And incentives should be granted to employees on an individual basis according to their performance, not to all of them indiscriminately," he said
He said remuneration had nothing to do with the effort to eradicate corruption. The present government policy, he said, would not be effective to minimize corruption among the country's civil servants community.
What the government should do first to prevent corruption among civil servants, Rizal said, was to improve their morality, mentality and performance.
Earlier, Golkar Party legislator Pryo Budi Santoso had said the finance ministry had so far been a place for the implementation of a remuneration pilot project in an effort to increase efficiency in government agencies. To implement the policy, the House had approved a significant budget increase to raise the pay of finance ministry employees to prevent them from committing corruption.
Under the initial plan, the House had approved remunerations for the finance ministry for the 2004-2009 period, and if it proved successful the policy would also be implemented at other ministries and government institutions or agencies.
Consequently, the government had earmarked a budget of about Rp4.176 trillion per annul for the special remuneration of finance ministry employees.
"The idea was that with remunerations or bonuses, officials would work more efficiently and not take bribes or embezzle state money," Priyo Santoso said. However, with the discovery of a fiscal brokering case involving finance ministry employee Gayus Tambunan, the House was now inclined to review the special remuneration policy, he said.
"I appeal to the House leadership to see whether the government`s argument that remunerations are able to eliminate corruption is acceptable . If not, we will ask the leadership to review it or its possible revocation," Priyo Budi Santoso of the Golkar Party said.
Lawmaker Tjahjo Kumolo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) concurred with Priyo, saying that the remunerations at the finance ministry should be reviewed because it had not led to the desired results.
"At first, I thought the remuneration program at the finance ministry which was used as a place for a pilot project was running well and successful," Tjahjo Kumolo said on Thursday.
But with the disclosures of the suspicious funds amounting to Rp25 billion in Gayus Tambunan`s bank account, the hope that remunerations can eliminate the culture of corruption has been entirely erased, Tjahjo said.
He was commenting on the arrest of tax official Gayus Tambunan for involvement in a money laundering case worth Rp25 billion.
"With the special remuneration, the impression is created as if finance ministry employees are superior to government employees at the other ministries," Rizal said here on Saturday during a discussion titled "Remuneration, Corruption and Tax Brokering."
In reality, he said, there could be no "upper caste" or "lower caste" in the civil servants' corps. "There is no special class of civil servants," he added.
Rizal expressed regret that the government had continued giving special incentives to finance ministry employees by raising their salaries to a level nine times that of the rest of the civil servants corps while it had nothing to show to the public that progress had been made in the finance ministry's bureaucratic reform.
"Remuneration should be given to an institution which has proven successful in implementing bureaucratic reform. And incentives should be granted to employees on an individual basis according to their performance, not to all of them indiscriminately," he said
He said remuneration had nothing to do with the effort to eradicate corruption. The present government policy, he said, would not be effective to minimize corruption among the country's civil servants community.
What the government should do first to prevent corruption among civil servants, Rizal said, was to improve their morality, mentality and performance.
Earlier, Golkar Party legislator Pryo Budi Santoso had said the finance ministry had so far been a place for the implementation of a remuneration pilot project in an effort to increase efficiency in government agencies. To implement the policy, the House had approved a significant budget increase to raise the pay of finance ministry employees to prevent them from committing corruption.
Under the initial plan, the House had approved remunerations for the finance ministry for the 2004-2009 period, and if it proved successful the policy would also be implemented at other ministries and government institutions or agencies.
Consequently, the government had earmarked a budget of about Rp4.176 trillion per annul for the special remuneration of finance ministry employees.
"The idea was that with remunerations or bonuses, officials would work more efficiently and not take bribes or embezzle state money," Priyo Santoso said. However, with the discovery of a fiscal brokering case involving finance ministry employee Gayus Tambunan, the House was now inclined to review the special remuneration policy, he said.
"I appeal to the House leadership to see whether the government`s argument that remunerations are able to eliminate corruption is acceptable . If not, we will ask the leadership to review it or its possible revocation," Priyo Budi Santoso of the Golkar Party said.
Lawmaker Tjahjo Kumolo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) concurred with Priyo, saying that the remunerations at the finance ministry should be reviewed because it had not led to the desired results.
"At first, I thought the remuneration program at the finance ministry which was used as a place for a pilot project was running well and successful," Tjahjo Kumolo said on Thursday.
But with the disclosures of the suspicious funds amounting to Rp25 billion in Gayus Tambunan`s bank account, the hope that remunerations can eliminate the culture of corruption has been entirely erased, Tjahjo said.
