City agencies overstaffed, but performing poorly

City agencies overstaffed, but performing poorly

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

City administration agencies are overstaffed, corrupt and
mismanaged, resulting in huge numbers of complaints from a
frustrated public.

Civil servants employed by the agencies spend most of their
days reading newspapers, playing computer games, watching
television, chatting with friends or running their side
businesses, many of which involve corruption.

"I finished my jobs an hour ago, I'm free now, therefore I can
chat with my friends," said Syarief, 52, not his real name, the
head of a small division at the City's Protocol and Information
Center Bureau.

He said his office was overstaffed, causing confusion over who
did what and shortages of work to actually do.

Syarief said many staff ran side businesses during work hours,
saying their monthly salaries could not support their families.

Syarief, with the bureau for 30 years, is paid Rp 1.5 million
per month.

"Without a side business, I cannot afford education fees for
my two children studying at university."

He said his business "helped" people obtain various documents,
including land certificates and construction permits.

The previously described scenes are mirrored at central
government departments.

Jajang, 30, not his real name, lives in Serpong, Tangerang and
works for a government agency in South Jakarta.

He usually leaves home at 9.30 a.m. and returns around 4 p.m.
or 5 p.m.

"I have no specific jobs at my office, therefore I can arrive
and leave anytime. There are many employees there who can do my
job if I'm not there," Jajang told The Jakarta Post recently.

The city administration and central government are aware of
the problem. Vice Governor Fauzi Bowo said the city
administration had 21,000 people too many.

The City's figures show the excess is due to the transfer of
employees from various ministries closed by former president
Abdurrahman Wahid during his tenure from 1999 to 2001.

The transfer of teachers from the central government to the
city administration, following implementation of regional
autonomy, was also attributed to the increase.

State Minister of Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin has said
that three million of its five million civil servants nationwide
were unproductive, unprofessional and corrupt.

To increase efficiency, the city administration was in the
process of cutting staff numbers from 96,998 to 75,000, though
the process had hit problems.

Many employees have rejected tempting early pension packages
of between 100 million and 200 million rupiah as they will lose
easy jobs with numerous fringe benefits from corruption.

Sudirham, 51, also not the real name, from the City's General
Bureau, said he would not accept the golden handshake as he would
not know what to do with the money.

City Administration spokesman Muhayat said problems with
shedding 21,000 employees was the cost of Rp 2 trillion to Rp 4
trillion in pension and redundancy packages.

Another problem was that the administration had no legal basis
to lay off staff, he said.