US ups aid to 950 million; Indonesia fears corruption in its own bureaucracy

From AFP (via CNA, Feb 10):

WASHINGTON : US President George W. Bush announced plans to nearly triple US aid to nations devastated by the December 26 Indian Ocean tsunami, bringing total US assistance to 950 million dollars.

That will top the previous record of 500 million by Japan. The breakdown:

According to the White House, the US$950 million in total aid will include:

- 346 million dollars to defray costs incurred by USAID and the US military for immediate relief;

- 339 million dollars to rebuild infrastructure, such as roads, schools, and water distribution systems;

- 168 million dollars to help survivors return home, including food aid, shelter, housing reconstruction, education, and other programs;

- 62 million dollars for technical assistance for reconstruction activities, as well as costs of US government operations in the region;

- 35 million dollars for early warning and disaster mitigation efforts, including 23 million to improve US and international early warning systems against tidal waves, and 12 million for those efforts in affected countries.

Note the first item: the immediate response already cost some 346 million.

From AFP (via CNA, Feb 10):

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia : Indonesia has urged the global community to heighten vigilance to ensure rampant corruption does not swallow billions of dollars of tsunami aid as it promises a March deadline to begin large-scale reconstruction in ravaged Aceh province.

Senior Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab, who leads the government's disaster response team, said his country was gambling its reputation on the reconstruction of Aceh, which will put a pledged war on graft to the test...

He said it was vital that donor cash be channelled directly to rebuilding projects to avoid the country's notoriously suspect bureaucracy but where that was unavoidable, heavy scrutiny was needed.

.That's brutally honest of Alwi Shihab to speak so of his own country's bureaucracy. Maybe there's hope yet for Indonesia's endemic problem of corruption:

Indonesia has been named by watchdog Transparency International as one of the world's most corrupt countries. Its renown has led to a fall off in foreign investment, hampering recovery from last decade's regional financial crisis.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono rode into office last October on pledges to root out the culture of kickbacks, bribery and collusion at the heart of the problem, but his administration has yet to deliver solid results.