Home Affairs Minister Urges Regional Governments to Seek Efficiency Before Requesting Additional Central Funds

Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri) Tito Karnavian has said that regional governments cannot directly request additional budget from the central government when facing fiscal difficulties. Tito asked regional governments to first carry out budget efficiency before submitting requests for additional funds.

“We will be very careful. We don’t want regions to think, ‘Well, since there’s going to be a top-up, we can relax.’ No, no,” said Tito after a meeting with DPR Commission II at the DPR building in Senayan, Jakarta, on Thursday (30/7/2026).

His ministry will first dissect the structure of a region’s APBD (regional budget) if a regional government submits a request for additional budget. This step is taken to determine whether there are still expenditure items that can be made more efficient.

He gave the example of the situation in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). According to him, after a team from the Ministry of Home Affairs examined the region’s budget, a number of operational, upkeep and maintenance expenditures were found that could be trimmed. The resulting savings were then used to pay the salaries of government employees on work agreements (PPPK).

“For example, the case of NTT, which said it did not have enough. I would dispatch a team to examine everything, to dissect its expenditures. And it turned out savings could be made from operational, upkeep and maintenance spending that I consider, that we consider, excessive. And that turned out to be enough to pay the PPPK,” said Tito.

Tito said a similar step was taken in Tidore Islands City, which at one point experienced problems paying PPPK salaries.

“Recently there was the Tidore case, right? Our team went down there; the Director-General of Regional Finance, together with the Inspector-General, sent a team there. Operational expenditures were dissected, and it turned out they could also be made more efficient and used for spending,” said Tito.

However, Tito acknowledged that some regions were still hampered because Revenue Sharing Funds (DBH) from the central government had not been fully disbursed. According to him, if efficiency has been carried out and the shortfall in DBH is paid, regional budget problems can be resolved.

“But they have DBH, where the DBH has not been paid in full by the Finance Minister. If efficiency is carried out and the DBH is paid by the Ministry of Finance, then there will be no more problems there,” he said.

For that reason, Tito said the government will not immediately grant regional requests for additional budget. He said every proposal will first be evaluated before a decision is made.

“So if anyone suggests writing to us asking for a top-up, no. We will open it up first, we will dissect it, and we will make it public,” said Tito.

In the conclusions of the meeting between DPR Commission II, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Association of All Regency Governments in Indonesia (Apkasi), the Association of All City Governments in Indonesia (Apeksi), and regional heads, it was agreed to push the government to immediately disburse the underpaid DBH to regional governments to resolve difficulties in paying PPPK salaries.