The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) of Korea is to strengthen strategic cooperation with Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to expand anti-corruption discussion through the G20 Summit.
 
In the 4th meeting of the Cooperation and Coordinating Committee held on July 15 in the KPK office in Jakarta, Indonesia, representatives from the two agencies agreed to enhance collaboration to put the anti-corruption issue high on the agenda at the G20 level, building upon the progress achieved through the G20 Toronto Summit.

 

 

 

"We need to prepare ourselves to advance the anti-corruption discourse in the context of the G20 meeting as Seoul plans to host the G20 Summit in November," Chung Key-chang, ACRC Assistant Chairman for Planning and Coordination, said.
 
KPK Acting Chairman Mochammad Jasin shared the need for anti-corruption efforts at the G20 level and welcomed the G20’s agreement made in Toronto to establish a working group to address corruption issues.
 
He also expressed his thanks to the ACRC for its assistance and support for KPK to learn Korea's corruption prevention programs since the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the ACRC and KPK was signed regarding mutual cooperation on combating corruption in December 2006.
 
"Corruption prevention is more important than control from a long-term perspective, and in that respect, Indonesia should learn more from Korea to improve its administrative systems," he said.
 
The ACRC has been transferring Integrity Survey, Anti-corruption Initiatives Assessment and Corruption Impact Assessment to Indonesia since 2007 as a follow-up measure to implement the MOU.
 
KPK's presentation on the implementation and progress of the transferred programs during the meeting clearly evidenced that the agency is highly motivated and has been implementing what they learned in a systematic, creative way.

 

This year, KPK plans to significantly increase the number of target agencies for anti-corruption programs. Integrity Survey will be expanded to 197 agencies compared to 92 in 2008 while Anti-corruption Initiatives Assessment will be carried out on 26 agencies, up from 2 in 2009. It is also to reflect Integrity scores in its performance indicators. Following the last year's Corruption Impact Assessment on the legislation regarding Hajj pilgrimage, this year will see such assessment on the forestry legislation.
 
With the interest and participation of Indonesian people and public agencies rising in Integrity Survey and Anti-corruption Initiatives Assessment, Korea's anti-corruption programs are being put in place successfully in Indonesia.
 
Specialist Dian Patria from the KPK Directorate of Research and Development said that Indonesia's public offices are taking a greater interest in Integrity Survey, frequently enquiring how they can raise their Integrity scores.
 
"We experienced the effect of inducing voluntary competition to improve integrity levels among public institutions with the implementation of Anti-corruption Initiatives Assessment," another Specialist from the same Directorate, Niken Ariati, said to the ACRC.
 
In addition to the programs already provided, KPK hopes to learn further from Korea, particularly about "e-Government" that allows receipt and handling of corruption reports through the Internet.
 
KPK Acting Chairman Mochammad Jasin said, "introduction of e-Government system from Korea is expected to contribute to building good governance in Indonesia."
 
ACRC and KPK agreed to revise the current MOU to expand the scope of bilateral cooperation. Both sides also decided to put joint efforts to spread the cooperation model established through their MOU implementation in the international community as a good practice.