TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The latest corruption case involves yet again, a state-owned company. This time it's the shipping company PAL, for marking up the price of vessels sold to the Philippines, to benefit personal pockets, of course. A major local newspaper recently blared a telling headline: SOEs are sources of corruption. Indeed, no question about that. But has this problem ever, really, seriously being addressed? The short and simple answer is a big NO. Just look at the structure of SOE board of commissioners, whose main task is to oversee and audit those companies, to ensure their good governance. But many of the members are cabinet ministers, supposedly representing the government as the principal shareholder. But look at the irony: where is the check and balance mechanism if both the company and the watchdog are the same people? Possibilities of conflict of interest abound! So we should whole-heartedly support the call to ban ministers from serving as SOE commissioners. That would be a first and crucial step in addressing the problem of corruption. Besides, why should they be getting double salaries? Says Adnan Topan Husada from Indonesia Corruption Watch as reported in Koran Tempo, "this contradicts the spirit of bureaucratic reform and (the goal) of economizing state finances."
YULI ISMARTONO
