Efficiency: Social Minister Gus Ipul to Postpone Ceremonial Activities until Expenditure

Social Minister (Mensos) Saifullah Yusuf, or Gus Ipul, is prepared to follow up on President Prabowo Subianto’s instructions regarding budget efficiency policies due to the impact of the Middle East conflict. Gus Ipul stated that he will postpone activities of a ceremonial nature. “Of course, we will follow up on the President’s instructions, which is why we held a meeting earlier and we will comb through which budgets are, say, not a priority, ceremonial in nature, or expenditures that can be postponed,” said Gus Ipul to reporters at the Ministry of Social Affairs office in Central Jakarta on Wednesday (25/3/2026). Gus Ipul explained that this efficiency will target technical matters in the office, such as the use of air conditioning, office stationery (ATK), and the frequency of meetings. He drew from last year’s experience where electricity savings managed to cut costs by up to Rp 1 billion. “That was just from electricity alone, not to mention the others. Of course, this will be adjusted accordingly,” he said. The budget from this efficiency, Gus Ipul continued, will be redirected to more pressing programmes. Naturally, the budget will prioritise the needs of the people. “Our main focus is programmes that directly relate to the interests of the people, the community, such as regular social assistance or disaster social assistance or our attention programmes like responses to cases for families that truly need quick assistance from the government,” he explained. Regarding the issue of rising prices of basic necessities due to the global situation and fuel efficiency, Gus Ipul assured that the government is ready to mitigate it. He mentioned schemes to thicken social assistance or add the number of beneficiaries as done last year. “Last year, there was thickening and an addition to the number of beneficiaries. So, an additional Rp 400,000 was added mid-year for two months. At the end of the year, it was increased to Rp 300,000 per month, so Rp 900,000 was received for three months. This shows that the President has extraordinary commitment to the national protection programme,” he emphasised. Besides budget matters, Gus Ipul also touched on plans to implement a Work From Home (WFH) scheme at the Ministry of Social Affairs. Currently, his side is conducting simulations under the coordination of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Social Affairs while awaiting directions from the Ministry of PANRB. “So, services to the public are not disrupted but we can also share between WFO and WFA. We are simulating one day a week to see how it goes, so we can balance between WFO (work from office) and WFA (work from anywhere),” he said. Meanwhile, for the Sekolah Rakyat programme, Gus Ipul assured that it will continue normally offline because of its dormitory system. “There are no plans yet for hybrid (online-offline). Sekolah Rakyat continues, the children are in dormitories and will return to school starting next Monday,” he said.