This aerial photograph taken on Saturday (7/10) of the Ciliwung River in Bukit Duri, Jakarta, shows the sections of riverbank that have been normalized. The total length of the renovated riverbank now stretches 9 kilometers of the planned 19 kilometers.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – In one week, Jakarta will welcome its new governor Anies Baswedan and deputy governor Sandiaga Uno. Both are expected to hit the ground running, as many big jobs await them. In the last five years, three Jakarta governors have successfully changed the face of the capital.
Physically, many infrastructure projects are underway, including repair and maintenance work on the city’s rivers and water pipes, construction of 5,000 low-cost apartments (rusunawa) and 180 child-friendly integrated public spaces (RPTRA), and revitalization of sidewalks. Also ongoing are the procurement of 962 new Transjakarta buses, the launch of Transjakarta’s 9.4-kilometer Corridor 13 and the new Semanggi overpass, and the normalization of the river.
A 2016 assessment by the Home Ministry showed that the Jakarta administration’s performance had improved. Jakarta ranked 10th in the ministry’s 2014 assessment and 4th in its 2015 assessment. Positive indicators continue to emerge for 2016. “In the latest ranking, Jakarta will most likely rise in the ranking. The city could be in the top spot, second or third,” the ministry’s director general of regional autonomy, Sumarsono, said in Jakarta on Sunday (8/10/2017).
The ministry’s data also shows that, in the past five years, Jakarta’s human development index (HDI) has increased. The city’s HDI was 78.08 in 2013 and 79.60 in 2016. The national average is 69.24.
With the highest HDI nationwide, this means that Jakarta provides the greatest opportunity for its residents to obtain healthcare and education services, as well as to improve their monthly incomes.
Public satisfaction is also evident in the business services sector, with the satisfaction increasing from 89 percent in 2015 to 99 percent in the first trimester of 2017. The simplicity of procuring business licenses has also improved from 106 to 91.
In his end-of-term accountability report delivered at a plenary meeting at the Jakarta Legislative Council, acting Governor Djarot Syaiful Hidayat said Jakarta was among the best regions in Indonesia in terms of the HDI. Development projects are on the right track across economic, social and infrastructure development to improve the welfare and living standards of the capital’s residents.
As a result of these various conditions, Sumarsono stressed that the governors and deputy governors serving between 2013 and 2017 had set high standards to follow. It will no longer be enough for new Jakarta leaders to work as usual, such as simply maintaining Jakarta’s inflation rate, as past governors did before this period.
“They will have to show extraordinary performance to match the standards of service and performance set by their predecessors,” said Sumarsono, who has twice served as Jakarta’s interim governor.
Amid the routine work on proceeding with development projects, Jakarta will host the Asian Games in 2018. The city administration still needs to complete a number of important projects, including the light rail transit (LRT) system to provide transportation for athletes and construction of the athletes’ residence and a number of sports stadiums – the budget for which still needs deliberating before its inclusion in the city budget.
Low budget absorption
The city council appreciated the work of Joko Widodo, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama and Djarot Syaiful Hidayat in their terms as governors. Infrastructure development during their respective terms was exemplary, despite problems, such as the eviction of riverbank dwellers.
Other matters the council highlighted included the city’s budget absorption. A number of the city’s working units recorded a budget absorption of below 50 percent. This was in spite of the generous amount of regional performance allowance (TKD) that was disbursed during Basuki’s governorship.
Council deputy speaker Muhammad Taufik said the low budget absorption showed that the working units were slow in planning or implementing program. The TKD has been 150 percent of civil servants’ monthly salary, amounting to Rp 19 trillion (US$1.4 billion) of the city’s Rp 71 trillion budget.
“Let me give you an example. A working unit has 72 personnel with a total TKD of Rp 200 billion. This is despite a below-50 percent budget absorption. This low rate of absorption shows that the working units do not work,” said Taufik.
Concern over the human resources quality in the city’s agencies was also conveyed by councilor Meity Magdalena Ussu in a report on Monday (2/10/2017). The agencies were deemed slow in creating adaptive, systematic, measurable and properly targeted plans.
The city council said that it also found duplicate programs and activities, as well as inconsistencies between the intended program targets and actual achievements. It is hoped the working units will be able to synchronize all programs and activities to better integrate and execute them as planned.
The low budget absorption is inseparable from the conflicts between the legislative and executive branches that cause project delays. However, Meity acknowledged that, based on public polls, the public showed a high level of satisfaction in the city administration’s performance in the last five years.
Breakthroughs
In order to work around the slow pace of budget disbursement discussions, the Jakarta administration has used public and private funding, including CSR funds and building-floor coefficients. The use of such funding sources does not require discussions with the city council.
“This was a breakthrough in public participation. Despite the low absorption of the city budget, infrastructure projects are right on target because of public participation,” Sumarsono said.
Public participation has been evident in the construction of RPTRA and rusunawa, the procurement of double-decker buses and the maintenance of dams, rivers and roads. These projects directly benefit Jakartans.
Jakarta Development Planning Agency head Tuty Kusumawati said that the alternative path was taken because the city administration did not want any delays in its development projects.
Another breakthrough was in transparency. In the last two years, the city administration has uploaded all details of city budgets and revised city budgets (e-budgeting), an e-catalog, and all city policies on its official website. Through Qlue, the public can lodge their complaints and suggestions directly with the relevant city agencies, including on damaged roads, healthcare services or clogged drainage pipes.
Many challenges remain to be addressed, including ensuring that the Smart Jakarta Cards reach their intended target and managing traffic jams through better road and railway infrastructure.
