As the United States and other world governments prepare to channel hundreds of millions of aid dollars to the tsunami-ravaged regions of Aceh, Indonesia's culture of corruption has emerged as a major concern, the New York Times reports.

It is taken for granted that no one does business in Indonesia without paying bribes, routinely disguised as "consultants' fees," to government ministers and heads of agencies. It was no surprise, therefore, when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general who was elected in September, promised a campaign against corruption — a promise that was met with skepticism, given the entrenched nature of the problem. But the surge of foreign aid for tsunami relief and reconstruction — and the expectations accompanying it — has forced Yudhoyono to turn to a non-governmental agency, Jakarta-based Indonesia Corruption Watch, for help in monitoring the flow of aid into Aceh and other areas.

According to Luky Djani, who is heading up the project for ICW, the opportunities for serious problems related to corruption are most likely to occur in the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase, which the Indonesian government has said will cost roughly $3 billion. The infusion of that much money will create abundant opportunities for bribes and kick-backs in a country where there are no conflict-of-interest laws and government officials have long viewed public office as a vehicle for private gain, Djani said. And there are currently no mechanisms in place for ensuring that reconstruction needs are not inflated by government agencies, local or national, in order to secure more funds. "We don't even know how many refugees there are," he told the Times.

Still, Djani hopes to eventually have fifty people, paid staff as well as volunteers, working on the project in Aceh. His organization, which has received offers of assistance from the San Francisco-based Asia Foundation and nonprofits in the Netherlands and Belgium, has about $2,000 on hand and needs about $120,000 to finance its operations in Aceh for two years.