Govt may decide against pay rise for top officials
Govt may decide against pay rise for top officials
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government is likely to back off from a plan to raise the
take-home pay of senior officials following public criticism.
But Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi said the government would
raise the salaries of low ranking civil servants, military
personnel and police officers as well as senior officials (grade
four civil servants) who have no "structural or functional
posts".
"Most likely, the increase in the take-home pay of high-
ranking state officials will not happen as we want to prioritize
staff on low salaries," he told the press on Monday after a
meeting between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the deputy to
the state minister for state apparatus empowerment, Soenaryo, and
the director general of the state budget, Achmad Rochjadi.
The government considered the move to increase the salaries of
low ranking civil servants as essential as many of them had been
facing difficulties in fulfilling their basic needs.
"That's our priority," Sudi said.
Currently, there are about six million civil servants, 500,000
military personnel and 125,000 police officers.
The take-home pay of grade one civil servants is no more than
Rp 500,000 (about US$52) a month, which is below the minimum
provincial wage (UMR) set for workers in the private sector in
Jakarta.
The take-home pay of grade four civil servants stands at
around Rp 2 million, but they do no get facilities in carrying
out their tasks.
The monthly take-home pay of a minister is around Rp 20
million, while the president gets Rp 50 million. But they also
receive various allowances and facilities, such as official
residences and cars.
The government earlier planned to increase the take-home pay
for the president, vice president and ministers by around five
percent as part of the wider plan to raise the salaries of civil
servants, military personnel and police officers.
As for grade one and two civil servants, their income will be
increased by up to 30 percent while grade three and four
officials will receive a 15 percent rise. First echelon
officials, such as directors general in ministries, were
originally supposed to get up to a 7 percent salary increase.
But the plan to hike the salaries of top officials drew strong
criticism amid the current difficulties bedeviling the state
finances and the economic hardship faced by the public.
The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which supports the
government, has officially announced its opposition to the plan.
The government needs approval from the House of
Representatives to go ahead with its plan. The government has yet
to include the exact amount of money needed for the pay rises in
the state budget. In the 2005 budget, the government allocated Rp
34.6 trillion for the salaries and allowances of civil servants,
police and military personnel, as well as pensioners.