Minister slams city's poor public services

Minister slams city's poor public services

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Residents who have long complained about the state of public
services provided by city administration officials got major
backing on Wednesday in the form of State Minister of
Administrative Reforms Feisal Tamin, who was openly critical of
the services.

Feisal asked Governor Sutiyoso to improve his administration's
services and acknowledged that civil servants had a low
accountability level.

"In general, we have yet to achieve satisfactory public
services due to the lack of capability and transparency on the
part of civil servants.

"Most officials are also under qualified," said Feisal.

The minister, however, said the low qualification of civil
servants started from the recruitment process, in which there
were so many irregularities.

He also called on civil servants to study Law No. 43/1999 on
civil servants, which requires civil servants to be productive
and neutral.

"The law also stipulates that civil servants have to do their
best to serve the public and at the same time avoid collusion and
corruption.

Currently, the city administration employs more than 96,000
people. The number previously ballooned to 106,000 with the
implementation of regional autonomy when several ministries
transferred employees from their Jakarta regional offices to the
city administration, causing an additional burden to the
administration.

Before the implementation of regional autonomy, the city
administration had more than 70,000 employees on its payroll.

Sutiyoso said the city administration had applied a zero
growth policy by deciding not to recruit more employees.

"The city administration offers early retirement for those
interested before the mandatory 56-year-old limit.

"We will not extend the service of employees who have reached
the mandatory limit," he said.

Some 66,000 employees have only a basic education background,
ranging from elementary school to senior high school.

Another 8,600 employees had one to three years in college
(locally known as D-1 and D-3 graduates) while there are only
about 21,000 employees with university degrees.

There are also 849 employees with master's degrees and 32
officials who graduated from doctoral programs.

"We will increase the number of employees with post graduate
qualifications by sending them to study either at home or
abroad," said Sutiyoso without giving any details.

Meanwhile, Tamin also asked all temporarily employed staff to
understand that they were not civil servant candidates.

"We hired them only on a short-term basis, usually to be
involved in certain projects. Their employment ends once their
project is finished.

"The government, however, gives special treatment to under-40-
year-old teachers and under-35-year-old medical staff to become
civil servants through special examinations," he said.