Home Affairs Ministry Drafts Remuneration Formula for Regional Heads to Curb Corruption

The Ministry of Home Affairs is drafting a remuneration formula for regional heads through options such as increasing the ceiling for collection fees, adding operational costs, and regulating incentives from regional-owned enterprises as part of efforts to curb corrupt practices. “There are many options, but we believe remuneration is not the only factor, because there are many prosperous regions with wealthy regional heads who still get entangled in corruption,” said Deputy Home Affairs Minister Bima Arya Sugiarto during the National Conference of the Association of Indonesian Provincial Governments in West Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, on Thursday. Bima stated that efforts to eradicate corruption must be carried out comprehensively by strengthening integrity, from prevention to prosecution. Since 2005, the Ministry of Home Affairs has recorded 46 provincial-level regional heads implicated in corruption cases, comprising 39 governors and seven deputy governors. He noted that the number of district and city-level heads caught in corruption cases is far higher than that of provincial leaders. “Let us work together to stop these numbers from increasing. We believe everyone must have a commitment from upstream to downstream,” Bima said. He conveyed that the ministry has run out of words to answer public questions due to the many regional heads caught in sting operations. Since the regional heads elected in the 2024 simultaneous regional elections were inaugurated in February 2025, up until July 2026, 17 regional heads have been dealt with by the Corruption Eradication Commission through such operations. “Initially, when one or two officials were arrested, we were concerned and angry. But now that there are 17, can we still just say we are concerned? We have run out of words,” Bima remarked. The Ministry of Home Affairs is opening communication channels for regional heads to convey various issues in governance, including efforts to strengthen clean and integrity-based administration.