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)