Agencies recognized for good service
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
For the first time ever, President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Monday recognized 55 state agencies across the country for their success in boosting public services and reducing corruption in their organizations.
The recipients were considered to have streamlined bureaucracy and improve public services.
"There are a set of criteria that must be satisfied for the agencies to receive the awards. It depends on the quality, transparency and accountability of the services provided," State Minister for Administrative Reform Feisal Tamin said during a ceremony held to confer the awards.
The Citra Pelayanan Prima (excellent public service) Awards were presented in a ceremony, which will now be held annually, at the State Palace.
President Megawati did not make a speech during the event.
However, Feisal was unable to give detailed information on how the agencies concerned had reduced unauthorized levies or the standards applied in appraising the success of the agencies.
"I do not have specific data on their achievements as they were selected by a team appointed to appraise the performances of these agencies. But we have guidelines for all civil servants so that they can improve the quality of public services," he said.
The minister said that the recipients had managed to apply the one-stop-shop system in providing services to the public and had greatly streamlined their bureaucratic procedures.
Among the recipients were state-owned firm PT Telkom's Medan, North Sumatra, branch, Fatmawati General Hospital in South Jakarta, the Bandung Population Office in West Java, a community health center (Puskesmas) on Bangka Belitung island and the Batam tax office in Riau.
The awards were presented to mark National Service Day, which falls on Sept. 3.
Indonesia is among the developing countries with the worst public services in the world due to complicated bureaucracy and rampant unauthorized levies collected by state officials.
The government has taken various measures to streamline bureaucracy, including reducing the number of civil servants. However, no radical action has been taken so far to achieve the goal.
The first National Service Day was observed on Sept. 3, 2003, with the government focusing on improving services in the fields of identity card and driving license provision, vehicle registration, land transportation, land affairs, drinking water and building construction permits.
To mark this year's National Service Day, the government pledged to further improve public services so as to cover wider fields, such as healthcare, research and telecommunications.
In observing National Service Day, Feisal also announced that the government had rewarded 28 civil servants with promotions for their achievements in their respective offices.
They included a number of customs officers who had been involved in capturing drug traffickers and other criminals, the minister added.
During Monday's ceremony, Megawati welcomed also received a number of low-ranking civil servants stationed in what may be termed dangerous places, such as railway gatekeepers, lighthouse keepers and volcanology monitoring officers.