Lenny Tristia Tambun – The Jakarta administration's plan to raise the salaries of its civil servants will not be effective in either curbing corruption or boosting their performance, an analyst said.

"There's no guarantee that the salary hike will improve the civil servants' performance or reduce corruption in the Jakarta administration," Agus Pambagio, an analyst on public policy from the University of Indonesia, told Beritasatu.com on Thursday.

Agus said that the plan would cause the budget allocation for civil servants' salaries in the regional budget to swell. He said that if salaries are doubled, civil servants serving at the agency head level would have their pay boosted to Rp 70 million ($7,300) per month from the current Rp 35 million.

"That's too much already. With a salary that high, not to mention other allowances, their performance could drop. There's no guarantee that with a high salary civil servants can perform better," Agus said.

He also expressed skepticism that the salary hike could effectively lower incidents of corruption.

"It's true that [logically] the salary hike should be able to reduce the corruption rate," he said. "But in practice, there's no guarantee. Let's say that [salaries] are up twofold. If you were faced with corruption that amounted to five times the salary, you might be tempted."

Agus called on the city administration to not only improve the bureaucracy through the improvement of human resources, new recruitments and salary hikes, but also to implement a strict, comprehensive system of rewards and punishments. He also called for greater efficiency through standard operating procedures.

"If [civil servants] are successful, give them a reward," Agus said. "But if not, or if their performance flops or they commit graft, dismiss them or give them an early retirement. If this is implemented, I'm sure the bureaucracy in the city administration will be better."

Commission A of the provincial legislative council has expressed its support for the city's three bureaucracy improvement measures. Commission A chairwoman Ida Mahmudah said that she fully supports the three plans that have been aimed at optimizing the performance of civil servants and improving public services.

She hopes that the plan to significantly increase salaries would be effective in preventing civil servants from committing graft because the salary would be enough to support their lifestyles.

"As for the improvement of public services, I fully support the move because life is already tough in Jakarta, and in 2014 prices will soar," she said. "This is a remarkable breakthrough from the Jakarta administration."

Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said the administration's main focus on improving the bureaucracy required the recruitment of new employees, improving human resources and also improving the welfare of civil servants.

"If their welfare is good, they can work without worrying about making ends meet or worrying about their families," he said.

The administration plans to set civil servant salaries at the same rate as employees in the private sector. The move also aims to discourage civil servants from corruption because low pay might make them open to bribery. Basuki said the size of the salary increase will depend on regional income.