Salary rise welcomed with skepticism
Salary rise welcomed with skepticism
JAKARTA (JP): Legislators welcome the government's plan to increase the salary of civil servants and members of the Armed Forces (ABRI) but doubt if it would significantly improve their well-being.
But members of the House of Representatives hoped that the salary rise would encourage civil servants and ABRI members to improve their services.
The salary rise was announced by President Soeharto yesterday when presenting the 1995/96 state budget plan to the House, in which he said that limited state financial resources made the government raise the salaries modestly.
"The government has decided to raise the salary of civil servants, members of the Armed Forces, pensioned civil servants and retired soldiers and their widows by 10 percent," he said, followed by a thunderous applause -- the only time it was heard throughout his speech.
The increase, Soeharto said, would be carried out in two stages: the salary rise of civil servants of Class I and II (the lowest echelons) will come into effect as of this month and those of Classes III and IV as of April.
The last time civil servants saw their salaries go up was in 1993, when the salaries of lower echelons went up by 18 percent and higher echelons by 12 percent.
"We have to thank the government for their initiative, even if the raise is only 10 percent," said Oka Mahendra from House Commission II overseeing home affairs.
Although Oka was convinced the increase could help minimize corruption and illegal fees, he pointed out that the government has yet to improve aspects other than salary, such as improving supervision, to make a significant change in the level of their productivity.
Soerjadi, the deputy House Speaker in charge of economic matters, said the planned salary rise would mean "very little" to the improvement of civil servants' and ABRI members' well-being, since inflation was already as high as 9.24 percent this year.
He hoped that the pay rise would help materialize a clean and respectable government that the people yearn for.
"But it's public secret that corrupt officials are usually those with a senior position, not lower-ranking bureaucrats who have no chance to embezzle state money," he said.
Inflation
Bambang Warih Kusuma from the budget commission said the increase was only made to conform with the level of inflation.
He pointed out that it would be more effective to transfer part of civil servants to the private sector. "By cutting down the number of civil servants and transferring them to private companies, they could work twice as effectively as they do now," he added.
Chairman of the House's United Development Party (PPP) faction Hamzah Haz said the rise "would at least maintain the purchasing power of civil servants" and be a positive boost to the business sector. "They certainly won't be saving all their earnings," he said.
Aisyah Aminy, chairperson of House Commission I overseeing information, diplomacy and security, also voiced similar skepticism about the actual value of the salary rise.
"What does 10 percent mean if inflation is already nine percent?" asked the legislator from the Moslem-oriented PPP.
Outspoken legislator Aberson Marle Sihaloho from the budget commission, said that the government should be more serious about improving civil servants' welfare if it was serious about creating a clean and respectable government.
He said, what had often been heard from the government was its calls for austerity measures to save state money to keep development programs going. "It's just lip service," said the House member from the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).
Economist Hadi Soesastro, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, on one hand welcomed the salary increase, while on the other hand was uncertain about its capability to minimize corruption, encourage productivity and increase efficiency.
"I'm afraid the connection between salary and quality of work from our civil servants is not that straight forward," he said.
He considered that the number of bureaucrats and their role in the economy was still too large and therefore continually became a burden to the state budget.(rid/hdj/pwn/pan)