W. Java, Banten respond poorly to reregistration

W. Java, Banten respond poorly to reregistration

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung, West Java

The government's nationwide reregistration program for civil
servants has apparently received poor response from officials in
West Java and Banten provinces.

More than 50 percent of civil servants in the two provinces
had yet to return their reregistration forms to authorities by
the July 31 deadline.

Dede Djunaedy, who heads the Regional III Office at the State
Civil Servants Agency (BKN) overseeing West Java and Banten, said
here on Monday that only 213,876, or 47 percent, of around
453,000 civil servants in the two provinces had submitted their
forms.

"The geographic factor is the main problem as to why they
(civil servants) are reluctant to return the reregistration
forms. Many of them, particularly teachers, live in remote areas
that lack access to transportation and communications
facilities," he told The Jakarta Post.

The absence of sanctions for those failing to return forms has
also made the reregistration program less effective, Dede said.

He said that although the deadline had passed, the Lebak
regency administration in Banten had not yet submitted data on
local officials who had returned the forms to his office.

To address the problem, Dede said his office would take a
proactive stance and directly collect the forms from civil
servants in the two provinces.

Provincial and central BKN offices had decided to extend the
submission deadline for civil servants in West Java and Banten
until the end of this month, he said.

The nationwide reregistration program was launched by the
Ministry of Home Affairs in cooperation with the State Ministry
of Administrative Reforms in a bid to boost bureaucratic
efficiency in the country.

Home minister Hari Sabarno said another objective of the
program was to screen civil servants in regards their loyalty to
the unitary state of Indonesia.

Asked how they would assess whether state officials were loyal
to the country, he said their answers on the forms would indicate
their loyalty.

The program was initiated days after the central government
imposed martial law in troubled Aceh to crush the Free Aceh
Movement separatists, who were believed to have the tacit backing
of certain officials in the province.

State Minister of Administrative Reforms M. Faisal Tamin said
some 12,000 civil servants would be affected by the government's
efficiency measures following the reregistration program.