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.