UNDP examines priority areas for tackling corruption in Asia-Pacific
12 Jun 2008
Jakarta, Indonesia — Cleaning up the police, health, education and environment sectors should be a top political priority in the Asia-Pacific region, in order to loosen the stranglehold of corruption on the lives of the poor, according to a new United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report released here today.
The Report, entitled Tackling Corruption, Transforming Lives, vividly illustrates how the region’s pervasive ‘petty’ corruption smothers opportunities for the most vulnerable people, limiting their access to education and compromising basic health services. It also provides innovative ways in which communities and governments are striving to fight corruption in Asia, including Indonesia.
The Report was launched by the President of Indonesia, His Excellency Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Director of the Bureau for Policy Development, Olav Kjørven, and the Minister of Development Planning, His Excellency Paskah Suzetta.
The publication quotes President Yudhoyono shortly after his election in 2004: “The eradication of corruption will be my priority over the next five years. We have to eradicate it structurally and culturally…This country will be destroyed if we do not stop the growth of corruption. There needs to be some shock therapy so that the people know that this government is serious about corruption.”
Tackling Corruption, Transforming Lives stresses that while anti-corruption efforts too often focus on exposing the ‘big fish’, it is ‘small fry’ corruption —from the salaries of fictitious ‘ghost teachers’ funnelled into the pockets of corrupt officials, to doctors demanding cash payments from poor, pregnant women to deliver their babies, which causes more day-to-day suffering and could severely hamper the Region’s goal of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)— the eight internationally-agreed targets aimed at halving poverty by 2015.
“Hauling the rich and powerful before the courts may grab the headlines, but the poor will benefit more from efforts to eliminate the corruption that plagues their everyday lives,” says Anuradha Rajivan, Head of the UNDP Regional Human Development Report Unit. “Petty corruption is a misnomer. Dollar amounts may be relatively small but the demands are incessant, the number of people affected is enormous and the share of poor people’s income diverted to corruption is high,” she said.
“Corruption does not grease the wheels; it is a spanner in the works,” says Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the Head of the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency for Aceh and Nias, Indonesia in the Report. Teten Masduki, the head of Indonesia Corruption Watch calls “for a grand coalition between government and non-government reform forces” to fight corruption in bureaucracy and formal politics in his contribution to the publication.
The Report stresses that combating corruption makes more political sense now than ever before, especially in sectors like water and electricity, health and education, as it “not only confers credibility to the government, it also greatly promotes everyday citizen satisfaction.” With that in mind, the Report proposes a menu of options for political leaders in the Region to consider.
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Source: UNDP Newsroom
The Report was launched by the President of Indonesia, His Excellency Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Director of the Bureau for Policy Development, Olav Kjørven, and the Minister of Development Planning, His Excellency Paskah Suzetta.
The publication quotes President Yudhoyono shortly after his election in 2004: “The eradication of corruption will be my priority over the next five years. We have to eradicate it structurally and culturally…This country will be destroyed if we do not stop the growth of corruption. There needs to be some shock therapy so that the people know that this government is serious about corruption.”
Tackling Corruption, Transforming Lives stresses that while anti-corruption efforts too often focus on exposing the ‘big fish’, it is ‘small fry’ corruption —from the salaries of fictitious ‘ghost teachers’ funnelled into the pockets of corrupt officials, to doctors demanding cash payments from poor, pregnant women to deliver their babies, which causes more day-to-day suffering and could severely hamper the Region’s goal of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)— the eight internationally-agreed targets aimed at halving poverty by 2015.
“Hauling the rich and powerful before the courts may grab the headlines, but the poor will benefit more from efforts to eliminate the corruption that plagues their everyday lives,” says Anuradha Rajivan, Head of the UNDP Regional Human Development Report Unit. “Petty corruption is a misnomer. Dollar amounts may be relatively small but the demands are incessant, the number of people affected is enormous and the share of poor people’s income diverted to corruption is high,” she said.
“Corruption does not grease the wheels; it is a spanner in the works,” says Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the Head of the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency for Aceh and Nias, Indonesia in the Report. Teten Masduki, the head of Indonesia Corruption Watch calls “for a grand coalition between government and non-government reform forces” to fight corruption in bureaucracy and formal politics in his contribution to the publication.
The Report stresses that combating corruption makes more political sense now than ever before, especially in sectors like water and electricity, health and education, as it “not only confers credibility to the government, it also greatly promotes everyday citizen satisfaction.” With that in mind, the Report proposes a menu of options for political leaders in the Region to consider.
Read More...
Source: UNDP Newsroom
