Jakarta – Vice President Jusuf Kalla said Thursday bureaucratic reform was unlikely to succeed without improved efficiency, time management and cost control, as well as economic development.
Addressing the opening of a national seminar on eradicating corruption through bureaucratic reform, Kalla said every country had bureaucratic regulations and procedures; the question was whether these regulations and procedures were properly implemented.
"There should be a standard for bureaucratic reform that defines success as good, prompt service to the public," he said.
He added that another standard for reform was cost control in the system. "This is the place where corruption usually occurs."
Kalla said the country's institutions needed to take several steps to reduce corruption, including deregulation, starting with the elimination of red tape in public services, and an improved recruitment process.
"Shock therapy for the public through repressive and preventive actions is also important, because without this, there will be no public awareness that can make people more careful and obedient."
He said reform could not be separated from improved remuneration, but this would be ineffective unless the country saw better economic conditions.
"Indonesia's development is likely to be stagnant by 2011 if we keep increasing civil service salaries without experiencing good economic development."
The Vice President said continuing to raise civil service salaries in this manner would result in too large an allocation for routine expenditures in the state budget.
The seminar was held by the Corruption Eradication Commission and the State Ministry for Administrative Reforms, to set out a grand design for bureaucratic reform in state institutions covering human resources and management.
"The design has been divided into three phases: the first phase is aimed at increasing the quality of public services, the second emphasizes public service in investment the third involves pilot projects for bureaucratic reform in compliance with official standards," State Minister for Administrative Reforms Taufik Effendi said.
"In the pilot projects, we're focusing first on institutions handling financial and law enforcement matters and public services, including the Finance Ministry, the Supreme Audit Agency, the Supreme Court and the State Ministry for Administrative Reforms itself," Taufik said.
He said this prioritization was based on the sectors most prone to corruption and in immediate need of bureaucratic reform.
"Thus far, the project has shown good results, with 293 regencies and cities nationwide having been able to improve their public services."
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said reform had not been fully achieved in her ministry.
"We're applying a system of checks and balances for the ministry's structure and organization, and are holding weekly evaluations of employee performance," she said.
Ryaas Rasyid of House of Representatives Commission II overseeing state reform said in order to eradicate corruption, institutions needed to introduce administrative reforms.