New official at home ministry
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. yesterday installed Oman Sachroni as the new Director General for Public Affairs and Regional Autonomy, replacing Sumitro Maskun, Antara reported.
The job oversees the implementation of an on-going pilot project to increase regional autonomy.
Oman was previously director for public affairs at the directorate general. He has also served as a guidance director for provincial governments.
His previous regional stints were all in West Java. He was chief of the Subang regency between 1988 and 1993, chief of the Lebak regency between 1983 and 1988 as well as being the secretary of the Bekasi administration.
Sumitro, who is preparing for his retirement, will be retained by the ministry as a senior researcher on development issues.
In April 1995, Sumitro oversaw the launch of regional autonomy pilot projects in 26 regencies.
Under the projects, many central government agencies were required to hand over much of their work to the regional administrations. The move meant giving the regions greater control of their own affairs.
Yogie, in his speech after the ceremony of appointment, asked Oman to keep a close eye on these projects, and to identify problems in the field and find their solutions.
He said the government planned to extend the projects to cover 63 second-level administrations in April. A tight evaluation of the current projects was therefore necessary, he said.
Yogie said Oman's new tasks included improving public services, helping local administrations' generate their own revenues and undertaking population surveys. (emb)