Patching up decentralization to boost the service delivery
Patching up decentralization to boost the service delivery
Riyadi Suparno
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
There were many positive changes to local democracy in 2005,
especially the direct elections of regional heads, but too often
this did not translate into the improved delivery of services.
Therefore, the challenge for 2006 will be to help our burgeoning
local democracy improve the delivery of services, especially to
the poor.
Why does improving services to the poor matter? Poverty does
not mean just a lack of income, but also a lack of access to
services that would benefit the poor more than any other group,
such as education, health services, clean water and sanitation.
As fighting poverty has been declared one of the main
priorities of the central government, improving service delivery
to the poor should be the guiding principle of any local
government.
Eradicating poverty by improving the poor's access to basic
services would not only meet the government's long-term target,
but also the Millennium Development Goals, which is a commitment
by countries to ensure all citizens have access to basic
services.
Therefore, it is imperative that we focus on improving service
delivery to the poor. But how?
Strengthening democracy at the local level by introducing
direct elections of heads of local governments, i.e. governors,
regents and mayors, has in some ways helped improve service
delivery.
When the people get the right candidates for regent, for
example, and they select the best one, many times they get better
public services almost immediately.
Immediately after his election as regent of Jembrana, Bali,
for example, I Gede Winasa introduced free basic education and
health services for people; services that are still uncommon in
the more than 400 regencies and municipalities across the
country. His wife, Ratna Ani Lestari, who later won the regency
election in Banyuwangi, East Java, also introduced similar
services there.
The commitment and creativity of regents or mayors to find
more efficient and effective ways to provide services to the poor
is equally important. This has worked out in some places.
In Polewali Mandar, South Sulawesi, for example, having
households participate in the management of schools, according to
the World Bank, has improved the effectiveness and responsiveness
of the education system in serving the poor. In Pemalang, Central
Java, vouchers given to women give them increased access to
prenatal health services.
In these cases, democracy has given people the chance to
select good candidates for regent or mayor, who in return provide
them better services. However, many times it does not always work
this way, simply because the system of decentralization is still
patchy.
Therefore the system of decentralization needs complementary
regulations or institutions, or may even require some changes in
areas already in place to make it more responsive to the demands
of the people, especially the poor.
One such measures should be the establishment of minimum
standards of public service. Although this has been mandated by
the Decentralization Law, such standards are practically
nonexistent, meaning the people -- as the users of public
services -- cannot judge whether the services provided by local
governments are up to standard.
Nevertheless, there is some heartening news coming from the
House of Representatives: It is now deliberating the much-awaited
public services bill, which covers the issue of minimum
standards, even as far as the introduction of a Britain-style
"Citizen Charter", i.e. a kind of detailed pledge by local
governments to provide better services for the people, with clear
targets and time frames.
Such minimum standards and citizen charters must be published
so that the people, especially the poor, can monitor whether
local governments perform, in terms of carrying out their public
duties.
Another area that needs to be strengthened is the adoption of
performance budgeting by local governments, which is mandated by
the Public Finance Law.
Unlike traditional budgeting, which is more concerned with
input than output, performance budgeting cares more about output,
and sets performance indicators and targets for all budget items.
However, even with performance budgeting, public service
standards or Citizen Charters in place, if there is no meaningful
system of accountability, they will not deliver the fruits of
decentralization, but rather serve as nothing more than useless
ornaments.
Therefore, the system of accountability at the local level
needs to be strengthened. Currently, local governments are
accountable to local people more than to the central government
through local legislative councils, or DPRD. Too often, however,
local councillors do not have the capacity to do oversight,
especially in areas that require specific knowledge and skills,
such as looking into the books of local governments.
In this case, our system of decentralization has a serious
defect, i.e. in the auditing of the books of local governments.
Unless the books are audited by an independent party, whose
results would be made available to the public or at least to the
DPRD, corruption at the local level will continue.
To address this issue, the Decentralization Law, which was
amended five years after implementation, will need another
revision, especially to accommodate the issue of audits.
To make the system of decentralization complete, we need to
empower local people so that they can do their part in overseeing
the performance of local governments.
Empowering the people can be pursued through various ways,
including by educating them about the importance of demanding
their rights with regards to public services, so that they can
demand or even punish local governments when service delivery is
below par.
The practices in Morowali and Pemalang are a good example of
local governments empowering the people by directly involving
them in public services.
When such practices become more prevalent, and the patchy
parts of the decentralization system are already fixed, we can be
sure that service delivery to the poor will improve, and we can
be sure that we will be better off as a nation.