Prabowo Criticises Bureaucrats for Deliberately Complicating Permits to Seek Opportunities for Bribery

President Prabowo Subianto has admitted to still encountering bureaucrats who deliberately complicate the permitting process to find loopholes for demanding money.

This was stated by Prabowo at the handover of Rp10.2 billion from administrative forestry fine collections by the PKH Task Force at the Attorney General’s Office, on Wednesday (13/5).

He expressed astonishment that even though the government has simplified the permitting process, ministries and agencies complicate it again through ministerial regulations and technical rules.

“The tendency in regulations is an initiative from bureaucrats, to be frank, to seek opportunities. Some demand kickbacks or money to speed up the issuance of permits,” he said.

Prabowo even admitted to receiving complaints from business groups who want to work and invest in Indonesia but are instead hindered by permitting issues.

He noted that permits often only emerge after one to two years from the application process. Meanwhile, Prabowo said, in other countries, permitting can be completed in just two weeks.

“Businesspeople also complain; they want to work and invest, but sometimes they wait for permits for one year, two years,” he said.

“Whereas in other countries, it’s two weeks. We must refer to neighbouring countries. If they can issue permits in two weeks, why do we take two years?” he added.

Therefore, Prabowo said he has asked State Secretary Minister Prasetyo Hadi to create a special task force to accelerate permitting deregulation.

“Simplify it, don’t complicate it. Businesspeople must be helped and supported. We discipline the naughty ones, but those who are good and truly want to work must be assisted,” he explained.

“Many foreign investors also complain that in Indonesia, permits often take a very long time and there are too many, brothers and sisters. Some permitting requirements are sometimes unreasonable,” he added.