3.2 Weakness of the Whistleblowing
System in Indonesia
3.2.1 Employee Perception (Reporter)
Both company employees and civil servants in
government agencies have a moral dilemma to
become a whistleblower. The employee who decides
to do a whistleblowing will be accused of being a
traitor who divulges secrets, but can also be said as a
hero (Sudimin, 2003). The agency where he works
can see his actions as a sign of not thanking the
agency that helped him and violated his loyalty. But
on the other hand, his responsibility to the wider
community also arose because he hid corporate
crime. The dilemma experienced by employees is one
of the causes of the whistleblowing system not
running smoothly.
In addition, even though there is already employee
protection or witness protection that has even been
included in organizational policy, employees are still
reluctant to become a whistleblower for fear of facing
many risks. The first risk that might arise is the
disclosure of the whistleblower's identity. The second
risk, and perhaps the hardest, is termination of
employment. Or, even though the employment
relationship is not broken, the relationship with the
boss and coworkers becomes tenuous and the
unpleasant situation in the workplace is unavoidable.
Another risk is the risk of criminalization, where the
employee can be prosecuted with defamation articles
or unpleasant acts. This risk can deliver the employee
to jail for a short time.
3.2.2 Legal System
The weakness of the WBS in Indonesia is also
influenced by the legal system in Indonesia. Until
now, there is no law that clearly regulates the
whistleblowing system. Whistleblowing, especially
those intended for government institutions, must be
reported to the appropriate agencies. There is no
special forum integrated between one institution and
another. Thus, the protection provided for a
whistleblower will be carried out by the institution
that receives the report.
3.2.3 Corporate Perspective
Overall, the weakness of the WBS system in the
company is located on the company's WBS channel.
Many companies rely solely on e-mail or text
messages that are not even heeded by the related
team. According to the EY survey titled the Asia
Pacific Fraud Survey 2017, only 37% of employees
were confident that their reports would be followed
up by the company's whistleblower team.
Still from the results of the EY survey, as many as
39% of employees were more comfortable using
external complaints channels, such as government
hotlines for reasons of security and anonymity.
Furthermore, as many as 1 in 4 employees stated that
they were aware of fraudulent acts within the
company, but they chose to remain silent because
they did not believe that the company would defend
them if they complained about these matters. From
the survey results it can be concluded that employee
mistrust of the company is the main cause of the
company's weak whistleblower system, especially in
security guarantees. In addition, the weakness of the
company's whistleblower system, especially those
managed internally, is the risk of the person being
reported as the person receiving the report. So,
employees are more interested in blowing the whistle
directly to the public or the government.
3.2.4 Perspective of Government Agencies
From the results of interviews conducted with the
employees of the Directorate General of Taxes in the
study of Ardityasari (2016), the WISE (Ministry of
Finance's whistleblowing system) seemed to divide
the team in the work environment. In addition, there
is a need for a clear system when receiving
complaints. One employee of the Directorate General
of Fiscal Balance stated that his co-workers had never
been questioned based on complaints from WISE.
Even though the complaint turned out to be only an
anonymous letter and a fictitious complaint. So,
according to him, there needs to be a punishment for
such persons, and an increase in the whistleblowing
system selection system itself.
In addition, the applications used in several
government institutions are still internal, and not
known at all by the community. In fact, the
community also has the right to complain if they find
irregularities or indications of fraud from these
government institutions.
Other weaknesses found i is the system overlap.
For example, within the Ministry of Finance, the
Directorate General of Taxes has its own
whistleblowing system called the Tax Complaints
Information System (SIPP) and so does the
Directorate General of Customs and Excise with the
Public Complaints Application System (SIPUMA).
The overlapping of this system implies inefficiency,
because the two directorates are still in the same
ministry.