AGRICULTURE MINISTRY BECOMES GOOD EXAMPLE OF A CORRUPTION-FREE AGENCY

Jakarta, Marc 6 (ANTARA) - Declaring a certain area is corruption-free, the agricuture ministry can serve as an example for other government agencies.

State Reforms Minister Taufik Effendi said here on Thursday the government will turn all governmental institutions across the country into corruption, collusion, and nepotism (KKN)-free institutions.
"One of the efforts to eradicate corrupt practices in government ministries include raising the salary of state institutionsis only by increasing the salary of government officials," he said.
At present, he added, the government was trying to raise by 15 percent the salary of civil servants in improving their living standards.
According to him, corruption occurred as the result of inadequate salary, so that many civil servants made use of their working hours ineffectively. Many of them tried to find extra jobs merely to increase their income.
To eradicate corruption, the negative intention needs to be abolished first and changed it into positive ideas, and opportunities to commit corruption needs to be minimized.
In the meantime, Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyanto said the working units enjoying corruption-free status reached only 26 percent at his ministry. This condition will be improved, so that all the institutions in Indonesia become corruption-free.
Anton said in 2008, the inspectorate general of the agriculture ministry has succeeded in making an inventory of 80 percent of the total budget.
In the same year, the number of cases identified by the inspectorate general reached 0.27 percent of the agriculture ministry's total budget if compared to that in the previous year.