Anita Rachman & Ulma Haryanto – That nine in 10 Indonesians believe corruption remains widespread across the government may seem outlandish, but a Finance Ministry official who spoke to the Jakarta Globe on Thursday said it sounded about right.

"People aren't wrong to perceive it that way," said the official, who asked not to be named. "As an insider, I'd say that it's probably really like that."

He added that while the Finance Ministry had undergone sweeping reforms, others had not and the degree of corruption varied across different bureaus.

Dian Andriani, a mother from Surabaya, gave the Globe an emphatic "Definitely yes!" when asked if she believed corruption was widespread throughout the government.

She said she had experienced first-hand the "corrupted deeds" of government officials, including unauthorized levies amounting to Rp 2 million ($225) for a property deed that she still had not received after two years.

"As utopian as it might sound, I'm hoping for a clean and respectable government from the very lowest levels right up to the president," she said.

Taxi driver Muhammad Ichwan has also had to grease a few palms in his time. He said that on one occasion, he was pulled over by a traffic officer because he had swerved onto the shoulder of the toll road while rushing a passenger to the airport.

"He said he would issue me a ticket, but I said it was a waste of time and money," he said. "So I asked him 'How much?' He said Rp 20,000."

Another time, he helped his nephew file a report with police when the nephew's motorcycle was stolen. "The next day an officer came by our place and asked for 'operational money,'?" he said. He paid the officer Rp 50,000 but his nephew never saw his motorcycle again, nor was anyone arrested for the theft.

Ignatius Haryanto, director of the Institute for Press and Development Studies (LSPP), attributed the high perception of corruption on exposure by media of graft cases implicating officials and businesspeople.

But he also believed that graft had become more rampant since decentralization was instituted a decade earlier. Now, he said, corruption was no longer just the domain of those in the central government, but was also widely practiced by local officials.