Hiring of special staffers for the President, Minister

Hiring of special staffers for the President, Minister

Prijono Tjiptoherijanto, Jakarta

The government plans to appoint special staff for the
President, the Vice President and ministers. The plan also
stipulates the number of the special staffers: 10 for the
President, five for the Vice President and three for each
minister. Given the nature of the job, a special staffer will be
assigned for as long as the political official he or she assists
is in the job. This means that a special staffer can come from
any group, as long as he or she meets the wishes of their boss.

It was president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid who started to
hire special staffers when he began his two-year term in October
1999. In 2000 there was a plan to appoint 15 special staffers for
him and vice president Megawati Soekarnoputri, respectively.
Ministers can have up to 10 special aides, while five are
available for governors and three for regents and mayors.

Although this idea never became reality, Gus Dur did appoint a
number of "spokespersons", who, actually, could also have been
considered special staff members. Their expenses, however, could
not be covered by the state budget because there was no formal
foundation that could administratively allow the use of the state
budget for this purpose.

As a result, presidential staffers in those years were busy
finding ways to cover the expenses of these "special staffers".

President Megawati Soekarnoputri saw the presence of special
staffers in her administration. Although the president herself
did not appoint a single special staffer, Vice President Hamzah
Haz was authorized to have five special staffers, all appointed
by virtue of a presidential decree. It seems that five is
considered the right number of special staffers for the vice
president.

Looking at the background for the idea of appointing special
staffers, there is nothing strange or debatable about it.
Problems will arise if this matter is linked with financial and
administrative issues that entail well-thought-out consideration
in implementation.

First, the financial and budgetary aspects. As these special
staffers will get allowances and facilities of echelon-ranked
officials, or a total of Rp 4.5 million (US$450) a month, the
budget for them must be calculated. If a special staffer is
assigned by the president, the vice president or a minister for a
trip domestically or abroad, a letter of assignment and travel
expenses must be prepared.

The question is whether all this has been included in the 2005
state budget or even in the 2005 revised state budget now being
debated. If it has not, who will bear these expenses, at least
until the revised state budget is approved, once the appointment
of special staffers is made? It seems that relevant officials in
the state administration must discuss this new policy before it
is adopted and implemented.

Second, the administrative and bureaucratic aspects. The
presence of special staffers would certainly affect the existing
government bureaucracy. The proximity between these special
staffers and the chiefs of government institutions will affect
the routine work and task implementation of bureaucrats. So,
there is always a possibility there will be conflict between
these two camps.

Third, the aspects of behavior and subjectivity. Although in
the regulation that will be passed, the term of office of a
special staffer will be the same as that of the president, the
vice president and the ministers, it will not be easy to ask
these special staffers to resign when the chiefs of the
government institutions they belong to resign.

Special staffers assisting the president and the vice
president may not worry much about this possibility. But what
about the special staffers assisting ministers? What about a
Cabinet reshuffle? Will it mean that the special staffers
concerned have to resign? What will happen when it is indeed time
for a minister to be replaced? Do special staffers that have been
assigned for three months, for example, also have to be replaced?

If you play by the book, they must! These special staffers
"come and go" in conformity with the terms of office of the
chiefs of the institutions that bring them in and pick them.

Won't this lead to "psychological worries"? Although a special
staffer has from the very start stated his or her readiness to
resign, the facilities accorded to a high-ranking official are
often too alluring to abandon. That is why many officials fight
to be able to remain in office.

The appointment of special staffers to complete an
administration is quite natural and is necessary in the present
era of reform and democratization.

This idea actually dates back as far as the days of president
Soeharto. At that time, a team coordinated by the State
Secretariat was set up to study the running of the White House in
Washington, D.C.

In a study tour of Washington, the idea cropped up about the
appointment of special staffers. Also proposed at that time was
an organizational revamp of the presidential institution to make
it similar to the management system of the White House.

Any way, the revamping of institutions and personnel must be
immediately effected. Therefore, the reorganization of
technically relevant ministries, state minister offices and even
non-ministerial institutions, to keep abreast with the
development of circumstances and the needs of the state, must be
made a top priority. Then all echelon I positions in these
institutions must be filled. Only later can special staffers be
appointed.

The writer was head of the Civil Service Agency from 2000 to
2002.