City to shuffle senior officials including mayors

JAKARTA (JP): A top city administration official revealed here on Friday that some 15 senior officials in the administration may soon be replaced, including some mayors.

Deputy Governor for Administrative Affairs Abdul Kahfi, after presiding over a coordination meeting on the planned replacement, would not go into detail saying only that some of the 15 "are officials from local authorities, maybe position of mayor or position of mayoralty secretary".

Kahfi, who also heads the city's Ranks and Position Advisory Board, said replacements would be assessed in accordance with the monthly evaluations held to review the performance of employees.

The board consists of all four deputy governors, city secretary, city inspectorate and city administrations office. The board is the only agency which has the power to nominate a candidate.

Kahfi explained that the planned replacements were part of a routine exercise conducted to fulfill the organizational needs of the city administration.

"We have to anticipate further development. As you know there will be the implementation of regional autonomy soon and many of our employees will enter retirement so we have to arrange for their replacement," he said adding only that a formal announcement will be made in the near future as soon as the nominees are approved by the governor and city council.

"The result of the meeting today, will be presented to the governor and will be discussed with the city council afterwards. But it will be in the near future," he said.

Ahead of the planned implementation of regional autonomy next year, the city administration is also preparing for a revamp of the administration structure, including the possibility of merging several agencies or offices inside the administration.

Kahfi confirmed that some agencies such as the socio-political directorate will be eliminated from the administration's structure as these functions should be handled by the home ministry or city police.(dja)