Ministry of State Apparatus Prepares Civil Service Placements in Merah Putih Village Cooperatives
The Deputy Minister of State Apparatus and Bureaucratic Reform, Purwadi Arianto, announced that the government has formulated scenarios for deploying civil servants in the Merah Putih Village Cooperatives programme.
According to Purwadi, the Ministry of State Apparatus and Bureaucratic Reform has coordinated with the Ministry of Internal Affairs to position regional government civil servants as managers of President Prabowo Subianto’s priority programme. The two ministries have also issued a joint circular as a follow-up to this directive.
Instructions for deploying civil servants in village cooperatives are outlined in the Ministry of State Apparatus and Bureaucratic Reform Ministerial Decision Number 1227/2025 concerning the deployment of State Personnel (PPPK) from Regional Institutions to the Merah Putih Village/Municipal Cooperatives.
“In accordance with the results of the coordination meeting at the State Secretariat for Food Security last week, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the State Personnel Board (BKN), consistent with their roles in the joint circular, will coordinate further with regional institutions,” Purwadi stated in a written statement published on the ministry’s official website on Thursday, 12 March 2026.
Additionally, Purwadi noted that the Ministry of State Apparatus and Bureaucratic Reform also supports the Ministry of Defence’s plan to recruit development-driving graduates (SPPI). These SPPI graduates will also be positioned as managers of the government cooperatives.
According to Purwadi, SPPI graduates have a strategic role in developing the competency of cooperative personnel resources. “We warmly welcome the coordination meeting on SPPI education for Merah Putih Village Cooperative supervisors as part of our efforts to ensure the success of the implementation of the President’s priority programme, which we must collectively support and make succeed,” he said.
The Ministry of Defence plans to recruit 30,000 SPPI graduates to manage the Merah Putih Village Cooperatives. They will serve as supervisors for 80,000 cooperatives targeted to commence operations in August this year.
“The government is targeting the recruitment and training of approximately 30,000 supervisory personnel through the support of the Ministry of Defence, the Indonesian National Military (TNI), and the National Police (Polri),” said Deputy Minister of Defence Donny Ermawan Taufanto during a coordination meeting on accelerating the Merah Putih Village Cooperatives programme, as stated in an official statement from the Ministry of Defence on Thursday, 12 March 2026.
Brigadier General Rico Ricardo Sirait, Chief of Information and Public Relations at the Ministry of Defence Secretariat, stated that those selected as SPPI will occupy manager positions at Merah Putih Village Cooperatives across various regions.
SPPI recruitment is scheduled to begin in June 2026. “Currently, the process remains in the stage of inter-ministerial and inter-institutional coordination and preparation,” he said when contacted on Friday, 13 March 2026.