Regional Bureaucratic Reform

Local governments exist for no other purpose than to assist the central government in providing public services.

KOMPAS/NINA SUSILO

Djohermansyah Djohan

Law No. 23/2014 on Regional Governments was enacted to guarantee good regional public services. Local governments have the authority to simplify the type of service and related procedures in order accelerate and facilitate the provision of public services.

Local governments must also use information and communication technology (ICT) in the provision of public services through public service announcements (citizen’s charter). In its execution, the regional heads lead with assistance from the bureaucracy – that is, the regional apparatuses like the regional secretariat, departments and agencies.

Bureaucracy, as a governance instrument, is intended to guarantee public welfare by providing good public services to citizens. The bureaucracy has a very important role. They work to take care of and serve the community, and are not "priayi" (elite) who serve the ruler, like in the New Order era. In the Reform Era, the bureaucracy must be professional, neutral and free from corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN) as mandated in Law No. 5/2014 on the State Civil Service.

Very alarming

From the above diagnosis, local bureaucracies have made slow achievements from 2004 to the present because both leaders and staff maintain a half-hearted commitment to bureaucratic reform. "Priayi" culture, "as long as the boss is happy", extortion, embezzlement, buying a position in government, playing it safe, and so on, are firmly embedded to the bureaucracy. Therefore, strong leadership and decisive policies are needed to carry out structural reform as President Jokowi stated in Sentul, 14 July 2019.

In fact, the government has been carrying out bureaucratic reform at both the central and regional levels for more than a decade. However, reform appears to have been less optimal at regional institutions because there is no clear, measurable and integrated road map. Many regions have not implemented bureaucratic reform because they regard it as neither the authority nor delegation of the central government, they are not being paid for it and it lacks clear direction on whether the Home Ministry or the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry is in charge of its coordination, guidance and supervision.

At the central government, the institution that is to lead bureaucratic reform is still in a gray area. Regulations are made by the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry, but the provinces, regencies and municipalities fall under the Home Ministry. As a result, bureaucratic reform is not regarded as a priority, because the local governments are busy with day-to-day governance.

However, regional bureaucratic reform is very important. First, a large number of civil servants work in the regions. Records at the National Civil Service Agency (BKN) show that the civil service corps numbers 4,374,341 million, consisting of 918,436 civil servants (20.99 percent) distributed among 10 central agencies, such as the Religious Affairs Ministry with 233,910 (5.38 percent), the Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry with 113,087 (2.60 percent), the Finance Ministry with 69,332 (1.59 percent), the Defense Ministry with 58,848 (1.35 percent), the Health Ministry with 50,897 (1.17 percent), the Law and Human Rights Ministry with 43,121 (0.99 percent), the Supreme Court with 30,608 (0.70 percent), the Transportation Ministry with 29,195 (0.67 percent) and the National Police with 24,489 (0.56 percent). Not to mention that they also have contract employees.

Meanwhile, 3,455,905 civil servants (79 percent) are assigned to more than 542 autonomous regions, with 70,000 in Jakarta (of 150,000 employees, with the rest contract workers). Of the 15,000 echelons I and II officials, 12,000 work in the regions and only 3,000 are posted to the central government.

Second, regional governments manage very large funds. The central government disbursed Rp 524 trillion to local governments in 2019, consisting of Rp 417.9 trillion in the general allocation fund (DAU) and Rp 106.4 trillion in the revenue-sharing fund (DBH). In addition, Rp 10 trillion was disbursed in the regional incentive fund (DID), Rp 21 trillion in the special autonomy fund and Rp 1.2 trillion in the special fund. They also have their own regional income (PAD).

Regional governments manage 32 types of governmental affairs: six basic state affairs, 18 mandatory non-service affairs and eight overlapping policy affairs.

Third, the regions have broad authorities and manage a wide range of governmental affairs, while their institutions have swelled. Although the establishment of a regional institution is determined by workload and have a functional scope, state institutions in the regions are still too fat. Regional governments manage 32 types of governmental affairs: six basic state affairs, 18 mandatory non-service affairs and eight overlapping policy affairs.

As a result, the regional "train" moves forward slowly. In fact, the institutional problems in the regions also apply to the center, with ministries that are still too large and too many unstructured institutions. Logically, the central bureaucracy should be reduced once governance has been decentralized to the regions.

Kompas

DI Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X invited the Director General of Regional Autonomy of the Ministry of Home Affairs Djohermansyah Djohan and politician J Kristiadi to his office after holding a press conference related to the submission of the Law Number 13 of 2012 concerning Yogyakarta Specialties, Tuesday (4/9//2012) in Kepatihan, Yogyakarta. The process of drafting the Special Privileges Law in Yogyakarta takes a long time because it lasts for 9 years and goes through five trial periods.

Fourth, the quality of regional governments is still problematic, such as neutrality, red tape culture and lack of innovation. As a result, the quality of regional public services has not improved significantly. On the other hand, KKN practices and extortion continued to occur until President Jokowi finally formed a task force in charge of eliminating bribery practices through Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 87/2016.

Achievements of regional bureaucratic reform

Significant improvements are badly needed in local bureaucracies to support regional development. The regions will not progress without increasing bureaucratic quality. Therefore, local human resource quality at regional governments must be improved to develop superior civil servants that are professional and competent, and have integrity.

The achievements of regional bureaucratic reform are characterized as follows: First, bureaucratic reform is identical with remuneration, that civil servants are compensated for the services they provide. Usually this is given as performance allowance. However, bureaucratic reform based on remuneration has a less significant effect on regional outcomes. Remuneration should not be determined only by internal assessments, but also on public evaluation. On the other hand, if a civil servant is involved in irregularities and fraud, the public is never made aware of the kind of sanctions they were given.

Second, meritocracy has not been implemented well in regional governments. A system of merit based on high qualifications, competencies and performance is not yet a reality. Even the job promotion system is corrupt. In addition, an official can be removed at any time if they are deemed disloyal to the regional heads during the general election and the regional elections. Regional heads even frequently engage in the practice of trading in positions, assisted by their special staff. Moreover, the formation of selection committees is often engineered according to the prevailing interests, so the results are predetermined.

Third, digital government has not been widely implemented in the regions. Only a few regions have public service malls, including Jakarta, Banyuwangi regency and Batam municipality. Local governments are generally less creative and innovative in public services. In fact, it is necessary to implement e-government to help facilitate public dealings with local governments and to catch up with globalization and regionalization,.

Local governments can use information technology (IT) to provide information and services efficiently to the public, businesspeople and other governance matters through government-to-customer (G2C), government-to-business (G2B) and government-to-government (G2G) models. The aim is to instill security, efficiency and transparency in the management of regional governments. However, most regional governments (provinces/regencies/municipalities) have been unable to do so due to budgetary constraints and lack of IT human resources. Training from the central government has also been poor. In the end, each regional government has created and developed its own ICT system and so incurred high costs.

Policy reform

To realize an advanced Indonesia, policy improvements are needed to drive regional bureaucratic reform. First, in order to realize a merit-based civil service, it is necessary to form a talent pool in each regional government by assessing the potential and competency of officials in high leadership positions (JPT) and HR managers for promotion and remuneration, without using selection committees as it is done now. Second, JPT Pratama (high) and Madya (middle) managers in the regional government must come from the civil service so regional heads cannot remove them easily, and so they can be transferred to other regions and even to the central government. Third, the highest career civil servant in the region should be appointed as the civil service guidance officer (PPK), namely the regional secretary and not the regional head – of course, with tight supervision from the center.

Moreover, it also needs supporting IT infrastructure, such as microcell devices, internet and wi-fi connectivity to facilitate the provision of public services.

Fourth, to prevent the politicization of regional governments, the regional election system should eliminate costly fees that drag down regional governments that have lower budgets, without involving the regional bureaucracy. Fifth, in order to realize digital regional governments, regional organizations must fully support the commitment of regional leaders, including by providing IT experts, plans for a sustainable e-government system (RPJPD, RPJMD, RKPD) and adequate funding from the regional budget (APBD). Moreover, it also needs supporting IT infrastructure, such as microcell devices, internet and wi-fi connectivity to facilitate the provision of public services.

Sixth, to ensure the smooth implementation of the bureaucratic reform agenda in the regions, the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry should manage only central bureaucratic reform, i.e. national ministries and institutions, while the Home Ministry should manage provincial, regency and municipal bureaucratic reform.

Djohermansyah Djohan, Professor, Institute of Public Administration (IPDN); TIRBN member, Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry (2015-2019); Former Regional Autonomy Director General, Home Ministry (2010-2014)