Ombudsman: Strengthening the Institution Is Essential for National Development
Jakarta (ANTARA) – Ombudsman RI (ORI) chair Nuzran Joher said strengthening the institution was essential for national development.
“Public services are a measure of the success of development,” Nuzran said in a statement confirmed in Jakarta on Thursday.
He said the intent of the law governing the Ombudsman’s role, duties and functions needed to be further elaborated.
Ombudsman RI leaders met with National Development Planning Minister and Bappenas head Rachmat Pambudy in Jakarta on Monday (19 October) to discuss coordination and collaboration in supporting successful national development through priority programmes.
Nuzran said Ombudsman RI was a strategic partner of Bappenas in ensuring the quality of development governance. He said further discussions were needed to enable the two institutions to reach joint decisions on strategic plan outputs.
The issues also included strengthening human resources and oversight capabilities, improving indicators of the impact of oversight, and establishing regular coordination and evaluation forums.
At the meeting with the Ministry of National Development Planning, Ombudsman RI member Syafrida Rasahan said Bappenas’s support was needed to strengthen the institution, including by giving it a stronger position in national development planning.
“We hope the Ombudsman’s role in national development planning can be strengthened from start to finish, so that we can provide input based on the reports we receive and on ministries’ and institutions’ compliance in following up the findings of our oversight,” Syafrida said.
She also called for Bappenas’s support for performance- and risk-based budgeting, particularly in the regions. This would involve encouraging proportionate budget planning based on workload, the complexity of inspections, oversight coverage and public-service risks.
She said this could be reflected in the use of Ombudsman RI assessment results as one of the indicators in regional development programmes, encouraging local governments and regional government organisations (OPD) to act on oversight findings.
Robert said he hoped the Ombudsman RI assessment would remain a key indicator for measuring local government performance this year and in the years ahead.
“Hopefully, this year’s and next year’s assessments will continue to use the Ombudsman’s assessment as one of the key indicators of regional performance,” Robert said.
National Development Planning Minister and Bappenas head Rachmat Pambudy welcomed the discussion with Ombudsman RI.
He said the Ombudsman had a strategic role in strengthening governance by improving accountability, transparency, integrity and the responsiveness of public authorities.
Ombudsman oversight also contributed to improving public services and the quality of development, he said, by ensuring that development programmes could be accessed fairly and effectively by the public.
He said he hoped Ombudsman RI would continue to strengthen its role as an early-warning system to identify potential problems in government and development, helping to ensure better national development.
“The Ombudsman not only plays a highly strategic role, but also provides a foundation for us to oversee the achievement of increasingly effective national development,” Rachmat said.