Complaints about the slow performance of regional bureaucracies came amid a spike in cases in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, which required the government move quickly to control the number of cases.
By
KOMPAS EDITOR
·4 minutes read
In response to the slow bureaucracy and low absorption of health funds in the regions, the government has deployed the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police (Polri) to achieve the target of 3 million COVID-19 vaccine doses per day.
The budget for vaccination will be disbursed by the Finance Ministry directly to the TNI and Polri, who will run the vaccination program in the regions. (Kompas.id, 20/7/2021)
Complaints about the slow performance of regional bureaucracies came amid a spike in cases in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, which required the government move quickly to control the number of cases and restore the economy.
As many as 19 of the country’s 34 provinces complained that Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian had problems with budget absorption, especially in handling COVID-19, including large provinces where spikes in cases had occurred, such as West Java and Yogyakarta.
The target of 3 million vaccine doses per day was set by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo after the earlier target of 2 million doses per day, which was planned to be achieved in August, was exceeded in recent days. The president even mentioned a new target of 5 million doses per day.
Data from the national COVID-19 task force shows that, as of July 18, 41,673,464 people had received the first vaccine dose and 16,274,150 had received the second. The government raised the minimum target for the number of people vaccinated from 181.5 million to 208.2 million people, out of the nation’s total population of 271.349 million, in order to achieve herd immunity by the end of 2021. Accelerating vaccination is the key to controlling the pandemic and restoring the economy.
Previously, the local administrations were required to reallocate 35 percent of expenditures for goods, services and capital for activities related to COVID-19 handling. Weak regional bureaucratic capacity and understanding of budgeting mechanisms made the realization disappointing. The absorption rate was even lower than the same period in 2020, which was also criticized as low.
Even under normal conditions, the latent problem of low budget absorption in the regions is still often complained about, even though the Finance Ministry has applied a reward and punishment approach.
However, amid an increasingly worrying pandemic, the poor performance of the local administrations, which is often accompanied by a business as usual attitude and a lack of sense of crisis, seriously disrupts the pace the government wants to achieve. This business as usual condition can be seen, among other things, from the tendency of the local bureaucracy to save budget spending for the end of the year. Transparency in the use of budget is also a problem. This is a task for the future to continue to make improvements.
To respond to the surge in cases in the second wave of the pandemic, the government was forced to increase the budget allocation for the National Economic Recovery (PEN) program from Rp 699.43 trillion to Rp 744.75 trillion. However, its absorption is very concerning.
As of June 25, only 26.3 percent of the health budget was spent. This was lower than the absorption of other budget posts, such as for social protection, support for MSMEs and corporations, spending on priority programs and spending on business incentives.
Overall, the realization of the PEN program as of the second quarter of the year was only 29.9 percent. Last year, PEN funds were also not fully absorbed, with the realization at only 83.4 percent.