Autonomy leads to improved public services: Survey
Autonomy leads to improved public services: Survey
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
About four years after the implementation of the Regional
Autonomy Law, the majority of people have seen improvements in
health, education and administrative services, all of which have
been decentralized, a survey by the World Bank and Gadjah Mada
University in Yogyakarta revealed.
The Governance and Decentralization Survey -- which surveyed
1,815 households in 32 cities and regencies in eight provinces --
said, however, the quality of police services, which remains
centralized, had either declined or remained unchanged.
"The verdict is most Indonesians feel that decentralization is
beneficial," World Bank Indonesia Country Director Andrew Steer
said in a press briefing on Thursday. "The majority of
Indonesians can see real improvements in their local public
services following decentralization."
The Regional Autonomy Law gives bigger authority to regional
administrations and legislators. The law was first passed in 1999
but started to be implemented two years later with a revision
that took place last year.
The survey -- claimed to be the most comprehensive study of
the impact of decentralization on the quality of public services
to date -- found that 65 percent of respondents identified
improvements in public health in areas such as the quality of
facilities and services, availability of medicine and shorter
waiting times.
In public education, 60 percent of households polled felt
there was an improvement in public education, citing improvements
in the condition of schools, quality of teachers, academic
performance and availability of extracurricular activities.
In administrative services, 59 percent of those polled felt
that improvements had been made in areas such as the
simplification of requirements and procedures, shorter processing
times and courtesy of public officials.
Conversely, 66 percent of households felt that police services
stayed the same or deteriorated, citing haphazard enforcement of
laws, discrimination in providing services and cost as a reason
for their concerns.
On a positive note for the police, respondents felt that there
was improvement in the response time and attitude of the police.
"It's interesting that police services, which are still
centralized, received poor performance measures," said Steer.
However, the survey also shows that bribes for most services
are still common in acquiring land deeds (53 percent), driver's
licenses (49 percent) and ID cards (36 percent).
"The degree of corruption is huge as there are bad things
associated with giving authority to people who previously did not
have the power and now are abusing it," Steer said. (002)