BPS hopes to retain major role despite autonomy
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)