Transparency International Global Corruption Barometer, which is based on polls assesses - the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians in a specific country. The method that is used cannot guarantee 100 % accuracy as the nature of corruption / namely being something that is often hidden from the public eye / implies that people lack information. On the other hand, people usually have a good sense of what is going on in the country, the findings of Transparency International should be meaningful.
Transparency Internationals latest survey - 2017 Global Corruption Barometer - which involved more than 1,000 respondents in over 30 provinces across the Indonesian Archipelago shows that 54 percent of respondents regard Indonesian lawmakers as the main actors in corruption cases, followed by bureaucrats 50 percent, regional councillors 47 percent and tax officials 45 percent.
Wawan Suyatmiko manager of Transparency International Indonesia says that the findings of the survey show there were a lot of court cases over the past year that involve Indonesian lawmakers and regional councilors. According to the data report from The Corruption Eradication Commission - KPK, the nations anti - corruption watchdog a total of 122 lawmakers and councilors were arrested for graft, while 14 court judges were imprisioned for corruption over the past two years.
Good news is that Indonesian's are now more satisfied with anti - corrution efforts that are conducted by authorities. According to the survey, 65 percent of respondents indicated that they are satisfied with corruption eradication programs, a significant rise from 18 percent in the preceding survey. Such satisfaction could be caused by plenty of media attention for arrests of high profile graft suspects over the past couple of years. Another reason could be that several central and regional leaders are perceived as clean and eager to combat corruption. Examples are Indonesian President Joko Widodo and former Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama better known as Ahok.
However, despite the positive trend, 65 percent of respondents said they see corruption growing in Indonesia, while 32 percent admitted they have bribed a public official - including police and civil registry officers. Meanwhile the number of respondents admitting to ever having bribed court officials fell considerably from 66 percent to six percent.
Indonesia is currently ranked in the latest Global Corruption Watchdog Index at 90th. However over the past decade the country has shown a marked and solid improvement in terms of scores.
The Corruption Perceptions Index :
A score of 10 means free from corruption, while a score of 1 indicates the system is fully corrupt.
The Corruption Perceptions Index 2016 Top 5 Countries :
1. Denmark 9.5 points from 10 points.
2. New Zealand 9.0 points from 10 points.
3. Finland 8.9 points from 10 points.
4. Sweden 8.8 points from 10 points.
5. Switzerland 8.6 points from 10 points.
Published by Julian Groom