Downsizing Cabinet<\/p>\n
I am writing to comment on the National Resilience Institute
\nalumni association (Ikal)'s proposals regarding the next Cabinet.
\nIt proposes that whoever wins the July 5 presidential election,
\nappoint four coordinating ministers and 35 ministers (Pelita,
\nJune 9).<\/p>\n
Such a bloated Cabinet line-up flies in the face of the
\npublic's disenchantment with the country's inefficient and
\ncorrupt bureaucracy -- a disenchantment that has been increasing
\nsince the emergence of the reform movement in 1997. The
\ncriticisms, ranging from lack of productivity on the part of
\ncivil servants, and swollen and ineffective central and local
\ngovernment organizations, etc., have prompted the government to
\nundertake institutional as well as civil service restructuring
\nand downsizing.<\/p>\n
The Ikal study, with its proposal for some 39 ministerial
\nposts in the next Cabinet, seems to ignore the reality that
\ngovernment institutions have for the last three-and-a-half
\ndecades been applying a strategy-follows-structure paradigm,
\nmeaning that the government sets up the organizational structures
\nfirst, and strategy follows later. This approach only leads to a
\nproliferation of government agencies, and is the complete
\nopposite of the Robbins and Millet theory (2002), which says that
\nstructure should follow strategy, meaning that the government
\nshould first clearly establish the strategies, with the necessary
\norganizations following later.<\/p>\n
This has resulted in at least three problems: inefficient
\norganizations and unproductive civil servants, the draining of
\ngovernment coffers in paying their salaries (compare with
\nRobbin's theory of cost minimization), and rampant corruption.<\/p>\n
In order to staunch the outflow of taxpayer's money, the
\ngovernment amended Government Regulation No. 84\/2000 by
\nGovernment Regulation No. 8\/2003, which now allows provincial
\ngovernments -- excluding Jakarta -- to establish a maximum of 10
\nagencies, and regental\/municipal governments to establish up to
\n14 agencies.<\/p>\n
However, when it comes to the central government, the
\nministerial offices bill, which was first moved in 2001, will
\nstill not be enacted before the new government takes office later
\nthis year. This bill envisages around 23 Cabinet posts as
\ncompared to the present 30.<\/p>\n
The figure of 23 cabinet positions falls between Thailand's
\n22, and Malaysia's 24. However, it is well above the United
\nStates, which has 15 seats at the Cabinet table, and Japan with
\n14.
\nSo, if the Ikal proposal is accepted, inefficiency and bad
\ngovernance, things that people have been fighting against, will
\npersist for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
M. RUSDI
\nJakarta<\/p>",
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