Efforts to establish clean, respected government
Efforts to establish clean, respected government
By Prijono Tjiptoherijanto
JAKARTA (JP): In order to maintain the momentum of our
nation's development it is imperative to create an honest and
well-respected administration. Experts, both foreign and
domestic, say that the quality of public service rendered by our
state bureaucracy remains a far cry from optimal. The main source
of the problem is the state officials themselves. Their ability
to work as servants of the populace has fallen behind the
society's demands and expectations, which keep on expanding and
increasing in intensity.
The weakness in the bureaucracy is the result of the
shortcomings in the process of instilling a sense of ethics,
honesty and responsibility in civil servants. This process starts
at a planning stage and ends with the monitoring stage.
Recruitment of civil servants based solely on merits and
skills is not yet a reality. The problem is aggravated by a
career development system that has yet to be structured. Both of
these problems result in the imperfection of the process of
recruiting and keeping civil servants in their profession. As a
consequence, the bureaucracy is not an attractive choice for
university graduates. The private sector is far more enticing to
them. Therefore, only the second best are ever interested in
becoming civil servants. Not infrequently, the third or maybe the
fourth best are the only applicants for posts in the state's
bureaucracy.
The rewards of working for the government are not attractive
enough to university graduates. One look at the table below will
tell us how low the incomes of government employees are when
compared with the incomes of people working in the private
sectors. Only in Singapore -- a country with a very strong and
reliable administration -- do those working in the public sector
receive higher salaries than those working in the private sector.
What with the low inflation rates and high per capita income,
there is no reason to doubt that Singapore's civil servants enjoy
a much better living standard than civil servants in other ASEAN
countries.
Indonesia, with the lowest per capita income in the region and
high inflation rates, shows a huge gap between the incomes in
public and private sectors. Incomes earned by civil servants here
are just one quarter, or at the best, one third, of what
employees of private companies receive. Therefore, it is no
surprise that becoming a civil servant is not an aspiration of
the best breed of university graduates. Lack of career
opportunities adds to the unattractiveness of working for the
government.
As far as a control mechanism is concerned, an honest and
respected bureaucracy can only be attained if the society is
allowed to enforce the accountability of government policies.
Only with transparency and the willingness to let itself be
scrutinized by the public can the state bureaucracy be improved.
Clearly, the requirements for honest civil servants involve
stringent selection and recruitment processes, a clear mechanism
for career development, and a control system that is fully ac
countable.
However, it is also necessary to take into account external
factors that affect these three action plans. Economic growth is
required so that the per capita income can be further increased.
Economic stability, as indicated by low inflation rates, should
be maintained so that the public's buying power does not wane.
Parallel with the above actions, the disparity between the
incomes in the public sector and those in the private sector
should be reduced. Without these additional efforts, any talk of
improving the bureaucracy will be nothing more than rhetoric. It
is very hard to welcome salary increases if the prices have been
going up and the buying power has already diminished.
On top of this, any increase in the civil servants' salaries
will mean very little if their counterparts in the private sector
receive substantial increases in their wages twice yearly -- not
to mention their bonuses and other benefits. The income gap will
continue to haunt our administration and it will be almost
impossible to improve the quality of our bureaucracy.
The writer is a deputy chairman at the State Administration
Institute.
Window: Incomes earned by civil servants here
are just one quarter, or at the best, one third, of what
employees of private companies receive. Therefore, it is no
surprise that becoming a civil servant is not an aspiration of
the best breed of university graduates.