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Corruption experts in Indonesia discuss how to safeguard tsunami aid

Jakarta (dpa) - Corruption experts from civil society, lending agencies, the private sector and governments throughout the region gathered in the Indonesian capital Thursday for talks on how to safeguard the massive amounts of tsunami aid in the graft-prone countries where it will be spent.

The two-day meeting, hosted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and Transparency International, will look at ways to minimize the possibility that the estimated 6 billion dollars in aid pledged for tsunami-affected countries in the region will fall prey to corrupt officials and private businessmen.

"Our reputation can now lie on how well we handle all the financial aid and assistance for the reconstruction,'' said Minister of Administrative Reforms Taufiq Effendi in opening remarks. "This means we should be able to organize the aid well and with minimum waste and corruption.''

"Foreign donors are most worried about this, and understandably so,'' he said. "If we fail to do so, this will not only influence the reconstruction of the tsunami area, but more devastatingly, will severely affect our relation with the outside world.''

The lion's share of the aid will go to rebuilding the province of Aceh in Indonesia, the area worst hit by the December 26 disaster, but donors have been cautious about how the aid is going to be used, citing Indonesia's persistent ranking as one of the most corrupt nations in the world.

The London-based Transparency International last year ranked Indonesia the world's fifth most corrupt nation, just as Indonesia was inaugurating their new president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Yudhoyono pledged to make fighting corruption one of his top short-term priorities, and has taken measures to fight the problem, but indicators show that the country has made little progress since his election.

As a result, international bodies, lending agencies and civil society has been working together to set up measures to ensure the tsunami aid reaches its intended targets.

The world's top auditing firms are helping to track an estimated 1 billion dollars in aid going to the United Nations' tsunami-relief operation in Asia, and the ADB and other donors are setting up their own trust funds to better control their contributions and that of other donors who are wary of handing money over directly to various governments.

"We have set up this fund to ensure a structured, systematic and transparent flow of resources while ensuring that we meet high standards of good governance,'' said Jak Jabes, director of governance and regional cooperation at the ADB, in opening remarks at the meeting.

"Trust funds like this will undoubtedly boost accountability,'' he said.

Government plans for rebuilding the devastated province of Aceh, where more than 220,000 people were listed as dead or missing and tens of thousands of homes and buildings lost after the December 26 quake-triggered tsunami, were unveiled late last month.

But another earthquake last week on the island of Nias, which left over 600 people dead and sparked fears of another tsunami, has cast doubt on the plans, which allow people in the province to immediately start rebuilding along the coastline. dpa eu jh

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