Corruption and Indonesian
Civil Society Organisations
Richard Holloway
Program Adviser on Anti-corruption and Civil
Society,
Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia
CSOs fighting corruption:
CSOs susceptible to
corruption
• What do we know about each group?
• Is there any cross-over?
• What can we recommend?
“Corruption is the norm in Indonesia,
not the exception”
Government, Business and
Civil Society – where is
corruption most likely?
Government:
to rule and to govern
Business:
to make profits
Civil Society:
- to enable citizens to associate
- to improve the lives of the citizens
- to hold the other two sectors accountable
to the citizens
Definitions of Corruption
Transparency International:
The misuse of entrusted power for
private benefit
Corruption for NGOs:
Behaviour for personal gain, or for
the benefit of another person or
organisation, by people who claim
to represent an independent nonprofit organisation which works for
the public good
Corruption in Indonesia
• Systemic corruption within the civil
service and armed forces
- positions bought and sold
- tax office extorts payments
- govt. budgets based on slush funds
- patronage networks of illicit income
• Systematic state plundering by Suharto
• Astonishing stealing from state
recovery program
Strong Rhetorical Call for an
end to KKN since Reformasi
• Very little action
• All anti-corruption initiatives betrayed
by political power games
• Increase in “democratic corruption”
(decentralization, party politics)
• Very little prosecution
• Attention to high profile cases, not to
systemic corrupt practices
Anti-Corruption NGOs (1)
• The only real activists against KKN
• In Jakarta and throughout most of
the country
• Strongly supported by the Press
• High profile
• Sincere and principled
Anti – Corruption NGOs (2)
• didn’t exist before 1998 – except
human rights NGOs
• many driven by desire to punish big
fish
• culture of “demos”
• few horizontal links with other NGOs
• few addressing systemic corruption
NGOs being Corrupt
• Pretenders: Venal organisations
using the mask of an NGO
• Well-intentioned: NGOs using
corrupt practices to benefit the
NGO
• Blurring the lines: as high
principles move into bad practices
Pretenders
• Red plate NGOs
• NGIs
• Profit making contractors
• remember Suharto’s “foundations”
• rich pickings in an open field
• culture of impunity
Well-intentioned
Faced with easy foreign funding and
difficult rules of engagement, many
NGOs hoodwink the donors to benefit
their organisations
• to pay overheads
• to support the organisation long term
• to implement “their” projects
Blurring of the lines
• Corrupt practices require corrupt
behaviour
• Surrounding environment supports
corrupt practices
• Pressure from political parties
• The culture of “envelopes”
Characteristics of Honest
NGOs
• Recognize the dangers of corruption
and include prohibitions in Codes of
Ethics
• Regularly check their activities
against their mission
• Learn about corrupt financial
practices so as to recognize them
• Be accountable to the people you
aim to be helping
Recommendations: to promote more anti-corruption
NGOs
• branches in all districts
• membership organisations with
local funding
• training in understanding systemic
corruption
• regular links to local media
• links to other NGOs and citizens
associations
Recommendations: for donors
• much more user friendly donor
practices
• building organisations not
implementing projects
• expose and prosecute corrupt
NGOs
Recommendations for NGOs
• Create professional associations
for NGOs with accepted Codes of
Ethics coving corruption
• Certification of NGOs to belong to
the professional association
• Sanction members of the
professional association who are
found to be corrupt
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