Three private firms signed an anti-bribery pact on Friday, signaling their increased awareness of the need to create healthy business competition in the country’s private sector.

Jakarta - The Jakarta Post - PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (PALYJA), PT Satu Solusi Intermedia Utama and PT Dupont Indonesia signed the agreement at the Indonesian Anti-Bribery Entrepreneurs Community’s (Kupas) seventh coordination meeting.

Companies must sign the pact as before joining KUPAS.

Wahyu Wibowo, director of human capital and internal services at PALYJA, said that one reason the company chose to sign the pact was to change society’s negative perception of the company.

“People tend to associate PALYJA with bribery. This is the kind of view we want to change by signing the pact,” he said.

PALYJA was probably the first water company to sign the anti-bribery pact, Wahyu said.

The company had previously signed an integrity pact to diminish negative perceptions before it signed the anti-bribery pact, he added.

In addition to PALYJA, other local state-run water companies (PDAM) in Pontianak, Palembang and Surabaya signed an integrity pact, he said.

PALYJA will report on its public image in terms of good corporate governance, bribery and corruption to stakeholders starting in August this year, he said.

Kupas executive board member Ai Mulyadi Mamoer said the companies would create a special unit or committee that would be responsible for supervising the implementation of the company’s anti-bribery policies.

The committee will be comprised of company employees, executives and commissioners, he added.

“The company has to have an anti-bribery policy that includes planning, program details, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and development,” Ai said at a Kupas coordination meeting in Jakarta.

Meeting participants also discussed the creation of a advocacy board for Kupas (DAK) that
would be responsible for communicating with government officials such as the police, prosecutors
and lawyers.

The advocacy board might include members of the National Police Commission, the Government Goods and Services Procurement Policy Institution, the Witness and Victims Protection Agency, Indonesia Police Watch, the Transparency International Indonesia, the Tax Committee, the Judicial Committee, the Indonesian Consumers Foundation and the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“Hopefully, the DAK will be formed during our 8th coordinators meeting on Aug. 18,” he said.

Source : The Jakarta Post / Saturday, 17 July 2010