Accelerate Bureaucratic Optimization

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

President Joko Widodo invites civil servants to take pictures while attending the commemoration of the 47th anniversary of the Indonesian Civil Servants Corps (Korpri) at the Istora Senayan venue in Jakarta on Thursday (29/11/2018). On that occasion, the President asked the civil servants to adapt to technological progress and continue to improve services for the community.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Efforts to make the bureaucracy leaner, more efficient and effective must be accelerated so that it can effectively support development. If the bureaucracy remains ineffective, it would not be impossible for Indonesia, which has just been upgraded to the upper middle-income group of countries, to fall again into the lower middle-income grouping.

Professor of State Administration at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Sofian Effendi, said on Monday (31/8/2020) that improving the competence and governance of the bureaucracy was needed to ensure the bureaucracy could work quickly and efficiently. An effective government is needed to sustain development.

According to Sofian, the competency improvement must be done through education and training. Unfortunately, the capacity building has not been a priority.

The composition and competence must be improved. So, it\'s not just the streamlining of bureaucracy.

On the other hand, said Sofian, the majority of civil servants were administrative personnel. Of the approximately 4.2 million civil servants, 39.1 percent were administrative personnel. To that end, the streamlining of the bureaucracy should be followed by clarity of the tasks and work performance indicators for the 1.6 million administrative staff. Thus, the results of their work can be measured. "The composition and competence must be improved. So, it\'s not just the streamlining of bureaucracy,” said Sofian.

According to him, to maintain the country’s status as an upper middle-income economy, Indonesia’s Government Effectiveness Index (IEP) score must be above 80.The IEP score ranges from 0 to 100. According to the IEP released by the World Bank in 2019, Indonesia\'s score was only 59.1.l

Also read: Bureaucracy Performance Far from Effective

KOMPAS/HENDRA A SETYAWAN

Sofian Effendi

”So, the performance of state institutions should be improved again so that they are able to support the country’s status as an upper middle- income economy. Our score needs to increase by 20 points," said Sofian.

On July 2, 2020, President Joko Widodo announced that Indonesia had been included on the World Bank’s list of upper middle income countries. The Covid-19 pandemic, according to Sofian, cannot be the reason for the decline in civil servants’ performance. During the current crisis, the quality of the bureaucracy is tested. If the bureaucracy cannot face the challenges rising from the new status, it is quite possible for Indonesia to return back to the lower-middle income country.

Slowly

The head of the Bureaucratic Reform Quality Assurance Team, Adi Suryanto, said that from the institutional side, a number of ministries had implemented a bureaucratic streamlining program so that the decision making process was now faster.

However, the concept of an effective bureaucracy has not yet been implemented by most of the country’s local governments.

In addition, state institutions’ ability to adapt to the pandemic varies from region to region. However, as bureaucrats, they should have the courage to carry out activities according to health protocols.

Also read: Powerful Bureaucracy Against Covid-19

The secretary-general of the association of Indonesian regency governments, Najmul Akhyar, admitted that local governments had not fully downsized because structural positions were still important to maintain the psychology of civil servants.

It is different from the Defense Ministry, which has implemented a bureaucratic downsizing program. The head of public relations at the ministry’s secretariat, Djoko Purwanto, revealed that equalizing administrative positions in functional positions within the ministry was able to accelerate the decision- making process.

Also read: New Normal Bureaucracy

Rini Widyantini, the deputy for institutional and administrative affairs at the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry, said downsizing the bureaucracy in regional governments was the responsibility of the Home Ministry. Meanwhile, for the central government, streamlining bureaucracy must follow the criteria set by the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry.

Rini said bureaucratic downsizing must be resolved by the end of December because in 2021, priority should be given to the acceleration of the bureaucratic machine. "In 2021, we will not talk about structural organization but how the bureaucratic machine can work. The business process and the use of information technology must go to that direction. If not, our bureaucracy will lag behind other countries," she said.