Jakarta – Indonesian anti-corruption NGOs and the World Bank will set up a joint team to probe leakages of project funds made available by the bank to Jakarta, the NGOs said here Tuesday.

"The World Bank will investigate corruption, collusion and nepotism together with the NGOs," said Kastorius Sinaga from the Concerned Citizens Movement on National Assets (Gempita).

Sinaga was speaking at a press conference here after meeting for more than one hour with World Bank Indonesia country director Dennis de Tray at the headquarters of the Legal Aid Institute. In the talks with de Tray, Sinaga was accompanied by representatives from the International Forum for Indonesia's Development (INFID), the Indonesian Social Economic Institute (LPES), the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) and the Indonesian Transparency Society.

At the meeting they discussed a leaked internal World Bank memo that estimated more than 20 percent of funds made available by the bank had been lost through corruption. "It stands to reason that the World Bank profited from this corruption," Sinaga said, adding that more detailed and concrete steps on forming the special investigation committee will be announced in two weeks.

Sinaga said that common corrupt practices in the use of World Bank funds were the mark-up of project costs, unfair tenders and unofficial levies. "(The joint team) is a step forward because the World Bank used to think (corruption) is a domestic affair," the ICW's Todung Mulya Lubis said.

The World Bank has confirmed the existence of the memorandum prepared by the bank's staff in Jakarta, which said more than 20 percent of the money earmarked for World Bank projects in Indonesia had been siphoned off by corrupt officials.

A joint statement made by the NGOs said that the World Bank "never cared about how much of its funds were actually translated into serving the majority of the Indonesian people. "The World Bank tends to set its target more on enlarging its funds, without prioritizing the quality and results of the projects," the statement said, adding that the World Bank's internal weakness centers in the absence of "financial monitoring" and "audit trail" systems.

The groups also said that both the World Bank and the regime of former president Suharto were accountable for the lost money, and thus the responsibility for the amount proven to have been lost through corruption should not be born by the Indonesian people.