Shadow of Politics in Contract Worker Recruitment

HUMAS PEMERINTAH KOTA BOGOR

Bogor Mayor Bima Arya was elected by acclamation to replace South Tangerang Mayor Airin Rachmi Diany as Chair of the Management Board of the All-Indonesian City Government Association or Apeksi in the VI Apeksi National Conference, on Thursday (11/2/2021).

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The government's latest policy on contract workers is feared driven by political interests towards winning the 2024 General Election. To prevent this, the recruitment system must be strict and transparent. The same applies to recruiting outsourced personnel by local administrations in place of contract workers.

A number of mayors and deputy mayors spoke on political interests in 2024 at the Kompas Collaboration Forum City Leaders Community discussion, “Strengthening Politics of Regional Budget Transfers for City Development”, which was held on Friday (10/6/2022) by the Kompas daily in collaboration with the Association of Indonesian City Administrations (Apeksi) at the Kompas Editorial Office in Jakarta.

Also read:

> Ensuring Civil Servants’ Performance Through Barcode Wristband

Attending as presenters were Apeksi chair Bima Arya, who is also the Bogor Mayor, and General Fund Transfers director Adriyanto from the Finance Ministry’s Fiscal Balance Directorate General. The members of the respondents’ panel who were present in Jakarta were Cilegon Mayor Helldy Agustian, Jambi Mayor Syarif Fasha, and Denpasar Deputy Mayor I Kadek Agus Arya Wibawa. Kediri Mayor Abdullah Abu Bakar attended the discussion as a respondent by video link.

Early last June, the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry announced that contract employment would no longer be allowed starting on 28 Nov. 2023.

KOMPAS/NINA SUSILO

Korpri officials want to shake hands with President Joko Widodo after a group photo session in front of the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, on Tuesday (26/2/2019).

Around 360,000 contract workers who still work in central and regional state agencies could become government employees under work agreements (PPPK) or civil servant (PNS) status. However, they must first pass a series of tests.

If human resource development officials (PPK), namely ministers, heads of institutions and regional heads, deem that they still need workers other than PNS and PPPK after the deadline for eliminating contract workers, they can hire outsourced workers. Their recruitment must consider both finances and needs.

In response to this policy, Bima said the current speculation was that political interests were behind the policy. "There is speculation [that] maybe there is a political dimension here, there is recruitment, for example cleaning staff and others, to accommodate political interests," he said.

If the speculation was correct, he believed it was reasonable, as long as the contract worker recruitment was in line with the rules and needs. Regional heads, for example, would think about how to give jobs to their constituents.

"So this is what's important. As far as the need is clear, where is the allocation, how many will the center need, this must be clear," he said.

Bureaucratic paralysis

It must also be ensured that public services were not affected by this policy. The reason was because local administrations maintained contract staff due to the limited number of civil servants (ASN).

"If in 2023 we are asked to stop contract workers without any mapping or data synchronization, there will be widspread paralysis of public services and possibly unemployment," said Bima.

Helldy gave an example of the Cilegon City Administration’s ASN map. From 2021 to June 2022, 354 ASN retired, while only 69 people joined the civil service. "It is not balanced between incoming and outgoing [ASNs]. That's why contract workers are needed," he said.

As a result, there were contract workers from other regions who had become PPPK in Jambi.

Meanwhile, Syarif Fasha questioned the mechanism for migrating contract workers to PPPK status, as there had been room since 2021 for contract workers to become PPPK anywhere, not necessarily at their current workplace. As a result, there were contract workers from other regions who had become PPPK in Jambi.

"We are not willing [to accept] that Jambi's contract staff who become PPPK once they open online registration, there will be entrants from other cities. Moreover, their salaries are paid by our regional budget [APBD]," he said.

Syarif also questioned the salary of contract workers because, he said, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani had stated that PPPK salaries were covered by the state budget. "Until now, there have been [no salaries] that are borne by the state budget," he said.

Arya Wibawa underlined that all existing problems must be resolved before the 2023 deadline for all contract workers recruitment to become PPPK. “It will be a political year. If all contract workers are not accommodated as PPPK, I'm sure there will be a commotion at the lower levels," he said.

Adriyanto said the central government understood the implications of abolishing contract workers, including the political and social dimensions that could arise. Therefore, he believed that the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry would be creating a policy that anticipated these things. With regard to PPPK salaries, he said the need had already been included in the general allocation fund disbursed to the regions, amounting to around Rp 18 trillion.

Presence of contract workers

If we look back, the presence of contract workers in government agencies has often been full of political interests. Many have become contract workers partly because of their close proximity to state officials. There have also been those who became contract workers as a kind of “reward” from the regional heads or legislators they supported during an election.

During the administration of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, doors were opened for contract workers to become civil servants without passing a test. From 2005 to 2014, a total of 1,163,883 contract workers were promoted to civil servant status. As 75 percent of these had an education between elementary and high school, the quality of the bureaucracy was affected. Moreover, the number of contract workers promoted to ASN status reached 26 percent of the civil service corps, which totaled 4.5 million.

In the administration of Joko Widodo, the recruitment mechanism for contract workers was changed by referring to Law No. 5/2014 on State Civil Servants (ASN). To become a civil servant or PPPK, each contract worker must pass a test. This selection mechanism aimed to improve the quality of the bureaucracy, as well as to close the opportunity for "stockpiles" of contract workers to become ASN.

For this reason, the recruitment system must still be strict and transparent.

ASN Commission chairman Agus Pramusinto pointed out that the current recruitment mechanism for civil servants and PPPKs, which used the merit system, must be maintained. For this reason, the recruitment system must still be strict and transparent.

This way, apart from closing the gap allowing for the entry of political interests in the recruitment of contract workers or outsourced workers, it would be certain that any government worker would contribute to improving the quality of the bureaucracy. Moreover, the government was aiming for the Indonesian bureaucracy to become a world-class bureaucracy.

This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo.