House Commission II Agrees Regional Heads Should Not Recruit New Staff
Deputy Chairman of House Commission II Bahtra Banong responded to the Home Affairs Ministry’s statement asking regional governments not to add new staff. Bahtra highlighted the habit of regional heads who appoint their campaign teams as honorary workers in regional government.
“Well, it should be like this. Usually, after our regional heads win and are elected, most of them accommodate their campaign teams to then be appointed as honorary workers or, for example, be seconded to the regional government. This is what often becomes a problem because there is no limit on how many they can appoint; there is no regulation,” Bahtra told reporters at the Parliament complex in Senayan, Jakarta, on Wednesday (19/8/2026).
Bahtra said that if this practice in regional governments continues, it will become a fiscal burden in its own right. He encouraged regional governments to follow the Home Affairs Ministry’s directive.
“Therefore, the Home Affairs Ministry issued an instruction that there should no longer be any appointment of honorary workers because later on it will become a fiscal burden for the region if the regulations are not tightened. So one of the goals is to tighten it so that it does not become a problem in the future,” he said.
It was previously reported that the Home Affairs Ministry asked regional heads not to recruit new staff. The ministry asked regional heads to adjust staffing needs according to the stages agreed upon by the government.
Deputy Home Affairs Minister Bima Arya said there are two things that regional heads hope for from the central government. He said these hopes relate to fiscal capacity support and certainty over the status of government employees with work agreements (PPPK).
“There are two things that are always the hope of regional heads, and these are conveyed to the central government. One is providing fiscal capacity assistance for employee payments, and the second is the transfer of status from part-time to full-time, and from full-time to civil servants,” Bima said after a coordination meeting with House leaders at the DPR building on Tuesday (18/8).
According to him, the coordination meeting provided answers to the two issues that have been a concern for regional heads. He also warned regional heads not to recruit new staff.
“Today’s meeting provided clear answers to these two matters, and the Home Affairs Ministry will go down to oversee, conduct outreach, and ensure that regional heads no longer recruit new staff and that everything is adjusted according to the stages agreed upon based on today’s meeting,” he said.