PRR Task Force Pushes Central-Regional Synchronisation to Accelerate Permanent Recovery

The Chair of the Sumatra Post-Disaster Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Acceleration Task Force, Muhammad Tito Karnavian, is encouraging regional governments in Aceh Province to synchronise all permanent rehabilitation and reconstruction programmes. This move aims to allow regional authorities to take on roles in permanent recovery for sectors not yet handled by ministries and agencies through the Sumatra Post-Disaster Master Plan. Tito stressed that the Master Plan serves as the primary reference for the permanent recovery phase for the 2026–2028 period, covering 11,520 activities with a total budget reaching Rp100.166 trillion. Through this scheme, regional governments are expected to share roles and responsibilities with the central government to avoid overlapping work on the ground. For example, the Ministry of Public Works has planned 1,141 specific activities for physical infrastructure repairs. Responding to this, Tito assessed that regional governments could take on roles by handling other infrastructure not yet included in the Ministry of Public Works’ programme scope. “This is what we actually need to synchronise. This is what we want to request in detail from these 1,141 activities regarding their exact locations, so that colleagues in districts, cities, and provinces know they are working on those specific projects. That means the ones not yet undertaken become the obligation of the regions to handle,” Tito stated during the Coordination and Evaluation Meeting on Development Achievements and Post-Hydrometeorological Disaster Recovery Acceleration at the Aceh Governor’s Office on Tuesday (9/6/2026). To achieve this, Tito affirmed that his team will immediately request the 23 involved ministries and agencies to detail all work programmes along with their specific locations. This data transparency is deemed crucial so that regional governments can map untreated areas and fill remaining recovery needs. On the other hand, Tito assessed that disaster-affected regional governments in Aceh actually possess sufficient fiscal capacity to act. The condition is that they must be able to maximise the additional Regional Transfers worth Rp10.6 trillion that have been channelled to the affected areas. Beyond Regional Transfers, optimisation can also be carried out through inter-regional grant schemes, whereby regions receiving larger transfers can help affected regions that obtained more limited budget allocations. As the next concrete step, Tito will push ministries and agencies to expedite the submission of recovery budgets to the Ministry of Finance. He does not want the permanent recovery process on the ground to be hampered by administrative and bureaucratic matters while the budget is already available.