Governance Deficit Challenges in 2021

The year 2020 was named the “Year of Gratitude” by Kompas because many nations were able to survive, while Yudi Latif declared it as the “Year of Hope”.

For the millions of civil servants (ASN) and contract employees who have waited for years, full of hope, 2021 is a year of challenges.

At least three major challenges face the Indonesian civil service, which is in charge of administering management of the country\'s government. First is the Covid-19 pandemic, which is developing into the biggest public health issue in many countries, including Indonesia. Of its 270.2 million population, 1.066 million Indonesians have been infected, while the country has recorded 29,728 Covid-19 deaths, or nearly 3 percent. Meanwhile Vietnam, with its 96.4 million population, 1,767 confirmed cases and 35 deaths, clearly demonstrates that its government has been more responsive to the pandemic.

Second is the contraction of the national economy, a result of the restrictions on activities and public mobility that governments have imposed in all countries affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Third, the declining global competitiveness of Indonesia over two consecutive years, in 2018 and 2019, shows that its bureaucratic reform program of 52 years has not been sufficiently successful in building civil service leaders that are powerful, strong, and capable of effectively tackling these three challenges.

Also read: Collaboration for Revival in 2021

However, it is not just Indonesia that has been late in preparing its civil service for facing the various challenges and crises confronting their nation. Rolf Alter, the Public Governance and Regional Development director at the OECD, revealed in his article “Governance Deficit” that the G20 countries, of which Indonesia is a member, are less prepared to face the multidimensional crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic that has hit 219 countries and territories.

Across the globe, 102.8 million people have been affected, 2.2 million have died, and 200,000 new cases are emerging every day. The formulation and implementation of policies among the G20 countries has been slower than the pace at which the crises in those countries. This condition is called a governance deficit.

In Indonesia, at a time precisely when this nation needs the abilities and expertise of its civil servants to face the three major challenges mentioned above and the transformation of its civil service to increase their strength and professional capacity, there are parties that have been taking steps that could exacerbate the governance deficit through an initiative to revise Law No. 5/2014, with an aim to dissolve the Civil Service Commission (KASN) and dividing 4.3 million civil servants and 2 million government employees into central and regional civil servants.

In fact, setting up two distinct categories of civil servants will undoubtedly weaken the role of civil servants as a force for strengthening national and state unity.

This initiative was reportedly taken at the request of a ministry that has opposed the drafting of the Civil Servants Law from the beginning. In fact, setting up two distinct categories of civil servants will undoubtedly weaken the role of civil servants as a force for strengthening national and state unity.

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

Civil servants attend a ceremony for the commemoration of the 47th anniversary of the Indonesian Civil Servants Corp (Korpri) at Istora Senayan, Jakarta, Thursday (29/11/2018). President Joko Widodo was present and acted as the inspector of the ceremony.

The government has been carrying out bureaucratic reforms since 1968, and as of 2020 it appointed 19 officials to lead the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry (PAN/RB). Even though it has been running for 52 years, the reform program has not succeeded in readying civil servants to deal with the crisis we now face, the Covid-19 pandemic.

Slow pace of bureaucratic reform

The 2019-2024 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) prioritizes the bureaucratic reform program with an aim to realize a civil service like in ASEAN countries and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa).

When announcing the programs of the Indonesia Onward Cabinet, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo explained that the bureaucratic reform program for the next five years would focus on: (1) improving the quality and capacity of civil servants; (2) reforming bureaucratic planning, budgeting, and accountability; (3) reforming bureaucratic institutions effectively and efficiently; (4) accelerating the development of electronic-government; and (5) reforming public services.

Since the first year of the Jokowi administration, the implementation of several quick wins has been very slow in the civil service subsector because they have been attempted in a bottom-up manner and are not well integrated with the goals of the RPJMN or the 12 pillars of global competitiveness that many developed and developing countries refer to as a compass for national development.

In the future, to make quick wins at ministries, agencies and regional administrations, the activities that relate to the 12 pillars of the Global Competitiveness Report must be sharpened. Under pillar 1, for example, bureaucratic reforms intended to strengthen government institutions have instead contributed to governance deficit because no significant change has been made to civil service ethics. Indonesia continues to use the spirit of "business as usual" and a treasury that continues to prioritize "budget realization", which many countries have abandoned, thereby causing inefficient use of the APBN (State Budget) and the APBD (Regional Budget).

Also read: Servant Leadership

The zero growth policy over three consecutive years and the three-year moratorium on recruiting government employees have created two new problems for the civil service sector. First is that a portion of the civil service is aging, which will disrupt smooth succession for the 440,000 leadership positions in the civil service.

Second is the threat of a tsunami of retirees, because more than 40 percent of all civil servants are over 51 years of age. If the number of employees retiring in the next five years reaches 1.5 million people, subsidizing the pension payments for 4 million retirees according to the defined benefit system will lead to a very large burden of more than 95 percent on the APBN/APBD.

The government\'s policy to reduce the recruitment of civil servants over six consecutive years has, without realizing, led to the deterioration of Indonesia\'s ratio of civil servants per population to one of the lowest in Asia. In 2017, Indonesia’s ratio of civil servants to population was just 1 civil servant per 61 population, far below the normal ratio of 1 per 50 population. The ratio of civil servants to population that is 20 percent less than the standard will certainly cause low-quality delivery of public services, especially in education and health.

To temporarily overcome this shortage, regional administrations appointed non-ASN teachers with salaries far below civil servant teachers, so the education of elementary and junior high school graduates was of very low quality.

Several days ago, the Education and Culture Minister said that Indonesia currently had a shortage of 1,021,000 teachers and education staff in 2020. To temporarily overcome this shortage, regional administrations appointed non-ASN teachers with salaries far below civil servant teachers, so the education of elementary and junior high school graduates was of very low quality.

This was shown in the average score of 371 for Indonesian elementary school students in the 2018 PISA, which was far below the average score of 417 among OECD countries. China achieved the highest score of 555, followed by Singapore with 549 and Macau with 525. Indonesia’s PISA score in mathematics was 379 and in science, 396. China again achieved the highest score in mathematics at 591, followed by Singapore with 569. As a matter of fact, our education budget is already 20 percent of the APBN and the APBD.

Civil servant management institutions

The Global Competitiveness Report 2020 of the World Economic Forum (WEF) shows that Indonesia has decreased sharply in effective government by dropping 14 ranks, from 50th out of 140 countries

to 64th out of 141 countries. This shows that the Indonesian civil service is seeing a governance deficit similar to that experienced by G20 countries.

Further investigation into the factors causing this governance deficit refers to three factors that drive effective government: (1) the low human resource quality of 4.3 million civil servants; (2) political intervention in human resource management of civil servants; (3) wide inconsistencies in public policies; and (4) widespread ethics violations across public services.

All are weaknesses that will continue to be prevalent in the Indonesian civil service for the next few years. For this reason, the government must make fundamental changes to develop responsive and collaborative civil servants who are free from corruption as well as political intervention.

Kompas/Wawan H Prabowo

Honorary teachers of Bekasi Regency, West Java, held a peaceful demonstration at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) Building, Kuningan, Jakarta, Monday (11/1/2021). They asked the KPK to investigate the sale and purchase of positions and a school toilet project worth Rp 96.8 billion in Bekasi Regency, West Java.

The initiative of the House of Representatives (DPR) and one Cabinet ministry to revise Law No. 5/2014 with an aim to dissolve the KASN will create additional obstacles in the development of one of the current administration’s programs, the National Talent Pool, which aims to find and systematically develop the best candidates to fill the 440,000 leadership positions across all government agencies. Likewise, education and training programs to instill public sector ethics, basic values, and discipline in 200,000-250,000 civil servant candidates each year will be hampered due to the lack of instructors.

Moreover, dividing the civil service into central and regional civil servants under the coordination of different ministries, as implied in the DIM (inventory of issues) that was prepared by the ministry supporting the DPR proposal to dissolve the KASN, will clearly weaken the function of the civil service as the glue and bond of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI).

In order to realize a civil service that is free from political intervention, the government needs to change its bottom-up reform program into a bottom-up civil service transformation that aims to eliminate the governance deficit in the following ways. First, strictly separate political positions from administrative positions, as well as reduce or eliminate the power of political officials in the appointment, promotion and dismissal of high-ranking civil servants.

As a state institution, the KASN has the authority to manage civil service resources for all agencies in the three branches of government.

Second, maintain and even strengthen the role of civil servants as an adhesive, unifying element of national and state unity. Third, as several developed countries in Southeast Asia and East Asia have done, the development of civil service human resources is to be carried out by a state institution, namely the KASN. The state institutions established by the Constitution or law are deemed capable of maintaining the neutrality of the civil service and government stability. As a state institution, the KASN has the authority to manage civil service resources for all agencies in the three branches of government.

Japan, Malaysia, and Thailand are all examples of parliamentary countries that have established civil service commissions. The Philippines, which has a presidential system, has formed two independent commissions under its constitution, namely the Civil Service Commission of the Philippines to manage high-ranking civil servants and the Career Service Commission of the Philippines to manage all civil servants apart from senior officials. Members of the civil service commission are elected and appointed by the Philippine president in their capacity as head of state, not as head of government.

KOMPAS/HENDRA A SETYAWAN

Sofian Effendi

In many countries, the civil service commission carries out the duties and functions of ministries, civil service agencies, and civil service training agencies. In Indonesia, the duties and functions of civil service resource development are carried out by four separate agencies: the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry, the KASN, the State Civil Service Agency, and the State Administration Agency.

Only in taking these three steps with courage and assertiveness will Indonesia’s civil servants be able to overcome the governance deficit and evolve into a civil service that is ready to face the various crises confronting Indonesia.

Sofian Effendi, Deputy Chairman of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences, and Chairman of the Board of Management at The Habibie Center

(This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo).