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.