New salary system proposed
New salary system proposed
Tony Hotland, Jakarta
A Washington D.C.-based organization has proposed to regional
administrations a new remuneration system for their staff in a
bid to improve their performance in providing services to the
public.
The International City/County Management Association, through
its Building Institutions for Good Governance (BIGG) program in
Indonesia, held on Tuesday its fourth national conference. It was
attended by mayors and regents from 31 cities and regencies.
"The basic idea is for local administrations to provide
monthly and yearly incentives for their civil servants based on
their actual performance, whether or not they have carried out
their duties and functions," chief of party of BIGG Geoffrey
Swenson said on Tuesday.
Based on observation, he said, many civil servants had become
more focused on other projects, which often offered greater
income, outside their real jobs.
"With our system, we expect that when civil servants go to
their office, they will do their duties and provide services
instead of skipping office to work on other projects, knowing
that they will still be paid anyway," Swenson said.
BIGG director of field operations Irianto said that the amount
of incentive should be based on seniority, position, workload and
job description.
He added that eight cities and regencies were already
interested in applying the system, but their commitment had yet
to be proven until a bylaw was issued.
The monthly salary of the lowest-ranking civil servant is
around Rp 575,000 (US$73.30).
Another issue discussed in the conference was the making of an
annual regional administration budget that incorporates public
participation and is equipped with transparency and
accountability.
"Along with the implementation of regional autonomy, a
transparent and accountable budget can, of course, increase the
attractiveness of the regions for investment," said Swenson.
He said that the program was to help train local
administrations to become accustomed in making budgets that were
related to concrete activities.
"They should already have concrete programs to be implemented,
and know who will implement the programs, what the targets are,
and how much money will be needed. These should all be
transparent in order to allow for public participation," Swenson
added.
The BIGG program started in 2001 and will end in 2005. It is
being carried out in collaboration with the ministries of Finance
and Home Affairs, with supporting funds from the United States
Agency for International Development.
It claims to have provided assistance to at least 46 local
administrations and networks to enable them to obtain information
and assistance from each other.