The Importance Of Government Ethics

THE IMPORTANCE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS IN CASES OF SOCIAL BANS CORRUPTION DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC Abstract The purpose of this research is to find out that government ethics is very important for government officials. The method used in this research is to use library research through data collection and taking several references from the internet. Government ethics is very necessary because it instills rules and guidelines on how elected leaders such as presidents, ministers, members of the DPR and public servants should behave and behave within government institutions. However, in reality, government officials have the heart to commit acts of corruption during the pandemic. The research results show that there are still many government officials who lack ethics, as evidenced by the large number of corruption cases that occur. Keywords: government ethics, corruption A. INTRODUCTION The never-ending corruption in our country illustrates how the importance of an official's ethics is often ignored, as evidenced by the large number of corruption cases committed by public officials. However, corruption cases in Indonesia seem to have become a common thing for us to hear about as evidenced by the large number of officials who are involved in corruption cases in both regional and central governments. The large number of corruption cases shows that government governance in Indonesia needs to be improved, especially in terms of the morals and ethics of officials. (Wawan & Mayrudin, 2020) The criminal act of corruption is a very heinous act, hated by society and also violates the rights of citizens. Corruption no longer seems to know the boundaries of who, why and how. Even in critical situations, public officials have the heart to corrupt public money (Sri Wulan Ningsih, 2022). The Covid-19 pandemic that hit Indonesia in March 2020 brought many changes in all aspects, including social, political, cultural and economic. The policies made by the government to reduce the increase in Covid-19 cases have had a big impact on the community's economy because many people have been laid off and many jobs have been hampered by the impact of the pandemic. The large number of people affected by the pandemic, especially in terms of the economy, has made the government try to reduce the burden on society by providing social assistance (Bansos), namely Direct Cash Assistance (BLT) which is specifically for people affected by Covid-19. With this assistance, it is hoped that it can ease the burden on the community. However, what happened was that social ministry officials and their ministers easily took away people's rights in the midst of critical conditions in order to fulfill their personal interests (Rahmatullah, 2021). Juliari Batubara was involved in a bribery case involving a total of IDR 32.48 billion from the social assistance package procurement program which was supposed to be given to ease the burden on the people, but was instead taken by those who were sworn to help the people. (Betresia et al., 2021) The importance of ethics in government agencies has a big role in providing services to the community, because ethics in government agencies is a guideline, reference, as to what the government should do. The ethics of public officials will affect not only themselves but also society. (Kurniadi, 2020). THEORITICAL REVIEW A. Government Ethics In the Indonesian encyclopedia, ethics is the science of human character and how humans should live in society, whether good or bad behavior (Abubakar, 2018). The definition of ethics according to James J Spillane is considering and observing human behavior in making moral decisions (Betresia et al. , 2021). Meanwhile, Haryatmoko believes that ethics is understood as a reflection of good or bad, right or wrong that must be implemented and how to carry out what is good or right (Wawan & Mayrudin, 2020). From the definitions above, it can be concluded that ethics is the study of human behavior, whether good or bad behavior. The definition of government ethics according to Nurdin is the teaching of good and correct behavior in accordance with the virtues related to human nature. In contrast to Sumaryadi, he believes that government ethics refers to a professional code of ethics only for those who work and for government (Endah, 2018). In government, ethics is very necessary because it instills rules and guidelines for how elected leaders such as the president, ministers, members of the DPR should be and public servants behave and behave within government institutions. Human behavior that is good or bad, appropriate or not and whether something is permissible or not is an understanding of ethics that is limited by basic moral values (Ismail, 2017). One part of ethics is government ethics and if studied more deeply, ethics is very broad. The use of power is the basis for government ethics because there must be guidelines or references, namely the Constitution and Pancasila which regulate rules which are a form of government ethics. Government officials are required to be honest, fair, transparent, trustworthy, ready to serve and ready to resign from their position if they are proven to have made a mistake that is in conflict with government ethics, the law and is detrimental to society. (Mukhtar, 2021) Apart from that, Labolo stated that the function of government ethics in government is: 1. As a guide, reference, reference, guideline in carrying out government tasks. 2. As a tool for assessing whether the actions of government officials are good or bad (Nisa et al., 2022) B. Corruption during a Pandemic Corruption is a very evil, vile, immoral, dishonest act carried out by individuals who are certainly immoral. Literally corruption means depravity, ugliness, dishonesty, immorality and deviation from purity. Corruption is also said to be an act of deviating from the main duties of a state office with the motive of taking advantage in the form of status or money for one's own benefit (individual, family or group). (Dinas et al., 2021). One of the goals of bureaucratic reform is to be free from KKN (corruption, collusion and nepotism), especially corruption which has been multiplying in our country from the past until now. Corruption seems to have become a disease that is very difficult to cure considering that so many government officials enrich themselves by taking away other people's rights. Many efforts have been made to eradicate corruption that have not yet been completed, such as giving severe punishments, taking an administrative approach to handling it by carrying out supervision in each agency. However, the efforts that have been made have not been able to eliminate and eradicate the actions of corruptors. (Ade, 2021). The Covid-19 pandemic that hit Indonesia in early March 2020 brought many changes and new habits that needed to be implemented both from a political, cultural, social and economic perspective. At the end of 2020, former Minister of Social Affairs Juliari P. Batubara was proven to have committed a criminal act of social assistance (bansos) corruption. This has certainly attracted a lot of public attention and has become very surprising news during the pandemic because when everyone is having economic difficulties, especially officials are taking advantage of this opportunity to take away people's rights. Long before this happened, President Joko Widodo had appealed to his cabinet not to play around in using the disaster budget, especially funds for the Covid-19 pandemic (Ali et al., 2022) However, what happened was that social ministry officials and their ministers were suspected of receiving bribes or gratuities from the company that won the tender to provide basic food packages for poor people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in the Jabodetabek area which caused state finances to suffer losses of billions of rupiah (Ali et al ., 2022). The authority possessed by the government makes them forget themselves to do negative things that will damage public trust, such as corruption. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The method used in this research is a literature study, namely by using data collection techniques by conducting a review study of books, literature, journal articles and previous research that are related to the problem being solved. Pudtaka study is conducting research by studying and reading literature related to the problem that is the object of research. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The Covid-19 pandemic that came to Indonesia stopped all activities, the pandemic changed the entire structure of people's lives from all sides, especially financially. Policies made by the government to reduce the increase in Covid-19 numbers, such as PSBB (large-scale social restrictions), have had a big impact on the Indonesian economy because many people have lost their jobs and been laid off. This matter making the government strive to continue to stabilize the country's economy, one of which is by providing social assistance funds launched by the government and the ministry of social affairs. Journal (Betresia et al., 2021). However, the social assistance funds that should have been given to the community were corrupted by the Minister of Social Affairs himself and this certainly violates ethics in government. Minister of Social Affairs Juliari Peter Batubara is suspected of receiving a total of IDR 17 billion from two social assistance packages in the form of basic necessities for handling Covid-19 in the Jabodetabek area in 2020. This amount was obtained from the collection of fees amounting to IDR. 10,000 per basic food package. The social assistance package for handling Covid-19 in the form of basic food packages at the Indonesian Ministry of Social Affairs in 2020 has a value of around IDR 5.9 trillion, with a total of 272 contracts and will be implemented for two periods. Based on the information gathered, from the Rp. 300,000 cost spent per basic food package, there is a margin of Rp. 70,000 which will be distributed to a number of parties, namely 40 percent quota owners, 10 percent creators and 50 percent suppliers. (Sri Wulan Ningsih, 2022) Jack Bologne (Gone) states that there are 4 causes for someone to commit acts of corruption, namely greedy, existing opportunity, neet (need), life interests, exposures (disclosure) weak law enforcement against corruptors so that it does not provide a deterrent effect (Ali et al., 2022). The above causes are in line with what is happening in our country, government officials because of their greed for wealth, abusing their position by taking advantage of existing opportunities for personal gain is a problem for government officials, coupled with the still weak law enforcement in Indonesia so that corruptors are not deterred by their actions. has harmed many parties. Corruption cases that often occur in Indonesia, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, show that the ethics of government officials are still low. The bribery case committed by the former Minister of Social Affairs has violated government ethics. This is proven by previous research which states that government officials must have an honest, trustworthy, ready to serve, exemplary and humble attitude in carrying out the tasks entrusted to them so that the bribery case committed by the former Minister of Social Affairs is a form of violation of government ethics. (Betresia et al., 2021). Apart from that, corruption also occurs due to abuse of power by public officials so that the perpetrators of corruption use their power for their own interests (Asih, 2018) Talking about corruption, ethics is present as a balance in running the wheels of government. Ethics is a value that must be used as a guide for government officials to maintain their behavior. The government code of ethics contains rules of conduct, obligations and prohibitions in carrying out their duties (Ade, 2021). The fundamental problem in public services in Indonesia is ethics, because norms or ethics and related sanctions that specifically regulate violations committed by officials in public services do not yet exist (Wawan & Mayrudin, 2020). Therefore, bad characteristics in terms of structure, substance or legal culture are formed from the legal system that we have been holding. This legal system has the impact of corrupt behavior such as unfair recruitment of officials, in terms of legal substance it does not provide a deterrent effect for perpetrators of corruption and a negative legal culture that has become a habit and is commonplace that we experience, such as bribery and gratification. Thus, these are the things that make the characteristics of public officials legalize all means to enrich themselves because legal awareness in terms of state elements does not appear (Nisa et al., 2022). This means that the ethics of government officials in Indonesia is still low so it needs to be strengthened both in terms of a person's personality and also the legal system. Apart from the results of the research above, limitations in the research still need to be considered. Because researchers only use references from journals, in the future it is possible to expand this by adding references from national libraries, adding international journals and conducting observations and interviews regarding the importance of ethics for government officials. CONCLUSION Corruption is a very evil, vile, immoral, dishonest act carried out by individuals who are certainly immoral. The large number of corruption cases in Indonesia illustrates that the importance of government ethics is often ignored. Even though ethics is a guideline for every government official and is also an assessment for society, how the officers' actions are good or bad in providing services. Corruption has actually become a common thing for us to hear about, but when officials commit acts of corruption during a pandemic where everyone is in trouble, it shows that the morality of our officials is at its lowest point. Therefore, it is very important to apply and know ethics in government because ethics has a big role for both officials and society.