Posted on 01/16/2005 5:20:25 AM PST by angkor
Sat Jan 15,10:14 PM ET
JAKARTA (AFP) - When delegates at a tsunami aid world summit in Jakarta tucked into beef, lamb, chicken and swordfish even as Indonesians scavenged for food on demolished coastlines, it was perhaps a sign that not all funds raised for victims would reach those who needed it most.
Now with 10 billion dollars of aid on the table, at least half of which is earmarked for Indonesia, there are concerns that such a tasty cash windfall will be nibbled away as it passes through greedy bureaucratic hands.
Indonesia bore the brunt of the magnitude-9.0 quake and tsunami, losing huge tracts of coastline and entire towns. Reconstruction is expected to last for years and require most, if not all the aid that is offered.
But before the December 26 disaster that killed 110,000 of its citizens, Indonesia was already battling a tide of corruption that has long blighted the country's wheezing economy.
As help pours in from all directions with bookkeeping brushed aside by the urgency of the situation, many fear that the Southeast Asian country's toxic proclivity for syphoning off cash may already be taking effect.
"It's only a matter of time," Todung Mulya Lubis of corruption watchdog Transparency International Indonesia told AFP. "I haven't heard any example yet, but coordination is very weak so I won't be surprised when it happens."
Transparency International ranks Indonesia in its top 10 of worst offenders, with an ungovernable reputation for kickbacks, collusion and bribery that has scared away badly needed foreign investment.
Aceh's governor Abdullah Puteh is behind bars at the moment, accused in a helicopter purchase embezzlement scam worth 100,000 dollars -- a paltry sum compared to the 35 billion allegedly amassed by former dictator Suharto (news - web sites).
New President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has described his country's lack of probity as the laughing stock of Asia, said after the disaster that the misappropriation of relief funds would not be tolerated.
"It's a very serious problem," according US ambassador to Jakarta B. Lynn Pascoe, who says Indonesia will receive a substantial part of 350 million dollars promised by the United States.
Despite the concerns, there are indications that the Indonesian government is taking steps to prevent corruption as it strives for credibility on an international stage upon which it is a relative newcomer.
William M. Frej, the official US Agency for International Development mission director for Indonesia, said that government officials had hired accounting firm Ernst and Young to monitor the grants it would receive.
"We have every reason to believe that all the finance that will be channeled to this country will be utilised in a very open, transparent way, that there will be a certain amount of governance involved with it," he said.
Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab said the government would also throw its books open to further inspection.
"We welcome reputable public auditors to see, inspect and inform the government if there is any malpractice in the process," he said.
Others see the tsunami distribution as a test case that Indonesia cannot afford to lose if it wants to retain the help of the United Nations (news - web sites) in overcoming the worst disaster in the country's history.
"The pressure will be strong on Indonesia. If it does not stop embezzlement, the UN will bring its fist down on the table," said one western diplomat here.
Some Indonesian government officials, however, believe that it is perhaps the United Nations that requires scrutiny, particularly in the wake of a scandal over its tainted "oil-for-food" programme in Iraq (news - web sites).
"As we know, even in the United Nations there is a lot of corruption, and we should be careful about this," commented Secretary of State Yusril Ihza Mahendra.
Transparency International's Lubis warned that unless Indonesia laid all its cards on the table, the country could lose the cash even before its corrupters get the chance to skim it off.
"Donors want the money to go to the victims, and if there is no transparency and no accountability, it is conceivable that they will not be bringing aid into Indonesia."
To wit, the most corrupt NGO (the UN) and the most corrupt country in the world (Indo) are striving to remove any transparency with their new windfalls.
Let the games begin!
Gee, YA THINK!?!
'course, as Saddam proved, if you work at it hard you can steal ALL of it, and that's a risk.
Maybe we should just take over the place as a protectorate while all this is being sorted out.
Or, just relocate all those folks to some other country ~ we could certainly use some lower cost labor ourselves, eh?!
"the most corrupt NGO (the UN)"....
nuff said! as soon as I heard that the effort would be led by the "UN", there was NO doubt the 'skimming' would begin.
Bwwwwwhahahaha !!!! Of all people to lecture anyone about corruption, the UN? The ones who pilfered billions from the starving in Iraq? If anything, the UN will ASSIST in the task of making the aid money disappear into the pockets of the corrupt bureaucrats and of course their favorite UN charity, Islamic fundamentalism (terrorists)
The UN will help steal most of the money for personal enrichment and then point to the starving victims and piles of rubble as proof America is stingy.
Now, that's funny! Any "fists" at the UN are tightly gripping stolen money.
You've got that right, The fist coming down brought guffaws from me.
They want us out by March, They dont want us to take our funds with us though.
Anyone who contributed any money expecting more than a small fraction to get to those actually hurt (financially or otherwise) by this event - was seriously deluding themselves. Why do you think they are chasing away first-world military and medical personnel? It's like giving a bum a voucher for a meal versus giving them cash. It is a lot more harder to turn the former into a bottle of Thunderbird (or in the case of the UN a villa in the south of France, a bank account in Zurich or a fur coat for a girl friend.)
Those ignorant others are forgetting that Indonesia is a huge natural resource supplier to the Asian region and could use this to quickly call/trump any empty UN threats.
Jakarta is chasing them away because it wants control of the $$$.
Once these non-traditional aid entities are gone, they can play skimming games with the UN.
No, and the UN obtained $900 million in commitments two weeks ago. $20 million of that came, for example, from the American Red Cross.
Do you see how this game is being played?
With all due deference, Indonesia has been in the top 10 of Transparency International's "most corrupt countries" list for many, many years.
The handwriting was on the wall when the UN started grappling for its "oversight" role. Combine that with Jakarta's long term reputation for financial corruption and the mysterious "withdrawl deadline" makes sense: Jakarta wants control of the money.
I decided to defer on any contributions until the UN's role was clarified.
Now that it has been, and now that Jakarta has established it's restrictions and deadlines (both in the service of corruption), I've decided not contribute anything at all.India and Thailand are both supporting their own efforts; Sri Lanka is rapidly going back to conflict with the Tamil Tigers (inspired no doubt by the money); and Indo is engineering the sort of corruption operation for which it is famous.
There are other glitches, such as the incipient maneuvering to kick religious charities out of Achea, so the options become dimmer and dimmer.
Indonesia should in no way be allowed to control aid funds or operations on its own accord. But it looks like things are going that way.
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