The chairman of Bali Corruption Watch (BCW) is criticizing what he says is the widespread illegal use of government owned vehicles in Bali by government officials in which red license plates are replaced with falsified black plates. In Indonesia red–colored license plates are reserved for government owned vehicles and black-colored license plates are used on privately owned vehicles. The majority of leading civil servants replace the (red) plates with black plates or falsified plates. There are certain civil servants granted special permission to use black plates on government vehicles, such as officials working in an intelligence capacities. But in Bali, almost all government operational vehicles have had their red plates replaced with black plates. This is a clear violation of traffic laws. The chairman called on the Governor to require government-owned vehicles use red plates. This is necessary to detect any inappropriate use of a public vehicle for private purposes. The lawmaker called on police in Bali to take the firmest action against any vehicle not displaying the number and color indicated on its official registration.
