Governor addresses new city employees

Governor addresses new city employees

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Sutiyoso welcomed 1,477 employees from
the Jakarta offices of four downgraded ministries which were
transferred to his administration under Law No. 22/1999 on
regional autonomy.

"City administration will place you in positions which are in
relation to your echelon, rank, educational background and
experience. There are other considerations as well," the governor
said in a prepared speech on Monday.

"The important thing is you can continue serving the country
at your new place of employment," he added, saying he hoped all
the employees would keep up a good performance.

Sutiyoso was addressing a ceremony which officially marked the
transfer of employees from a central government structure to the
city's bureaucracy. The central government was represented by
State Minister of State Administrative Reforms Freddy Numberi.

Freddy wrote letters on April 10 to governors, mayors and
regents in the nation that all central government assets,
employees and financial matters in regional administrations were
to be transferred to the respective administrations.

The transferred employees included 71 from the former ministry
of tourism, arts and culture; 327 from the former ministry of
transmigration and forest wanderers settlement; 566 from the
former ministry of public works; and 513 from the former ministry
of cooperatives, small and medium enterprises.

The four ministries were downgraded to state ministries soon
after President Abdurrahman Wahid took power in October last
year.

Earlier in March, the city administration received the first
batch of 1,209 transferred employees from the dissolved ministry
of social affairs and ministry of information.

After the ceremony, Sutiyoso said the additional employees
would pose more burden to his administration, which has 70,000
officials.

"Although all the salaries and allowances are covered by the
state budget, the city administration gives incentives to all its
employees.

"Each official receives from us monthly Rp 225,000 (US$25) as
a social welfare incentive and Rp 100,000 yearly as a uniform
allowance," he said. (nvn)