Jakarta – As relief officials work to help the thousands of people made homeless from last month's tsunami, another concern is quietly making the rounds of donor meetings: the threat of corruption.
The UN and other aid groups say they have seen little evidence of local officials skimming funds or reselling relief supplies in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and other hard-hit areas. Still, aid officials fear the issue could stop some individuals from contributing to the recovery effort.
"I think we're more concerned that the image of it [corruption] would hold people back from sending money because they fear the money would end up in the wrong pockets," said Michael Elmquist, head of UN relief efforts in Indonesia's Aceh province. "I don't think it's happening but the fear is there," he said, urging donors to give money to international organizations to allay their fears.
About $2 billion has been pledged to help victims rebuild from the December 26 earthquake and tsunami, which left nearly 140,000 people dead.
Corruption is expected to be on the agenda when world leaders including UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and US Secretary of State Colin Powell meet Thursday in Jakarta for a summit to coordinate relief efforts.
With the massive size of the relief operation and number of groups involved, officials acknowledge graft is an issue. They note that the last big relief effort following the December 2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran, was hampered by bureaucratic bottlenecks and allegations of corruption, including charges that one Iranian official profited from the disaster.
Indonesia appears to be the focus of most concerns for tsunami aid, given that Transparency International ranks it one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Jails are filled with local officials held on graft charges and the current governor of Aceh is on trial for taking money meant for local villages and padding the purchase price of a helicopter.
Several Indonesian relief efforts in conflict areas have also been marred by corruption. Local relief officials in Ambon, where Christians and Muslims have fought for years, are on trial for exaggerating refugee figures and pocketing the additional state funds.
Local graft activists fear more than 30% of the $1 billion projected to be spent on recovery could be stolen – about the average that disappears each year from the country's national budget.
Part of the problem, they said, is that emergency response agencies lack auditing mechanisms to prevent theft. Conditions are worse in Aceh, where a rebel insurgency has left local authority essentially in the hands of the Indonesian military, which is often accused of corruption.
Sporadic reports are already coming into Indonesian Corruption Watch of government bureaucrats reselling donated rice in Aceh and aid supplies being pilfered before they reach the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.
"Based on our experience, corruption in disaster recovery programs in Indonesia is rampant," said Luky Djani of Indonesian Corruption Watch. "We're expecting corruption in Aceh because there is so much aid coming into the province."
So far, no cases of corruption have been reported in Sri Lanka or India, though Indian activists say it is only a matter of time. "Once major money flows in, there may be a lot of corruption," said Dr. S.R. Srikrishna, a volunteer with British group ActionAid International in southern Tamil Nadu state.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, whose anti-graft campaign has dominated his first two months in office, is expected to appoint a ministerial level official to oversee aid.
"From the beginning, I have said all assistance must be handled with transparency and accountability," Yudhoyono told reporters Wednesday. "To assure foreign assistance is being properly used, I will personally direct and control the funds."
Most relief agencies and donors have dismissed concerns of widespread corruption, saying safeguards already in place will trump the greed of a few local bureaucrats. "We know Indonesia very well ... and I think the mechanisms we have to monitor and protect the integrity of our aid programs work pretty well here as they do elsewhere," Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told reporters in Jakarta.
Some groups admit corruption is inevitable given the amount of relief money and the role local governments will likely play in rebuilding roads, bridges and government offices. "Corruption is an unceasing issue when you have such a large amount of money going into a country," said John Budd, a UNICEF spokesman in Aceh. "There are unscrupulous people in all areas, not just here in Indonesia, who would use an aid agency to take money illegally."