BPS hopes to retain major role despite autonomy

JAKARTA (JP): The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) said on Tuesday it hoped to keep managing the country's statistics despite the implementation of the regional autonomy law next year.

"We don't know what form (the organization) is going to take, but hopefully it will be kept under the bureau," bureau chief Soedarti Surbakti said on the sidelines of a seminar on regional autonomy at her office.

The one-day seminar was held to mark the fifth national Statistics Day which fell on Tuesday.

Soedarti said if the compiling of statistics was left to regional administrations, the bureau would no longer be able to control their outcome.

"Even now, some administrations want regional statistics offices to be broken down and merged with other existing offices," she said.

Soedarti acknowledged that some provincial administrations had demanded the decentralization of statistics management, meaning that figures related to agriculture would be handled by the provincial office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, statistics on trade and industry by the provincial office of the Ministry for Industry and Trade, and those related to population by the regional National Family Planning Board.

"But then each office would have different priorities other than statistics, which would make it impossible for us to provide reliable national statistics," she said.

The decentralization of statistics management could also pose a problem for provincial governments operating on a small budget, Soedarti said.

"Our activities do not make money, but rather deplete funds. We will not be able to get national figures if certain regions cannot afford to carry out surveys," she reasoned.

Despite some opposition, Soedarti said that most people agreed that statistics management should be left to the bureau.

She said that Minister of Home Affairs and Regional Autonomy Surjadi Soedirja had issued a letter stating that the bureau would retain its presence in the regions for an indefinite time, she said.

On inflation trends, she said that the hike in intercity bus fares earlier this month and the planned increase in fuel prices next month would further push up the country's inflation rates, she said.

She estimated that this year's inflation rate would be 9 percent higher than the initial government estimate of between 5 percent and 7 percent.(10)