Call for civil service hiring reform

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 06/18/2008 10:44 AM  |  National

Indonesia's civil service selection and recruitment system lacks planning and is riddled with loopholes and nepotism, according to administrative sciences experts.

Professor of the School of Administrative Sciences at the University of Indonesia, Azhar Kasim, pointed out several weaknesses in the current system for recruiting civil servants.

"In some areas, I see that today's recruitment and selection system is worse than the system before the 1998 reform. The State Civil Service Board (BKN) actually has full authority to manage the system, but now the state minister for administrative reforms has interfered too much, including changing many policies," Azhar told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

"The minister, for example, changed the policy on contract employees by issuing a policy to promote them to the status of civil servants. This is not right because the new policy can lead to nepotism in recruiting," he said.

He added the government did not have an accurate database to calculate the number of civil servants in Indonesia.

"It only holds an occasional census, which is inaccurate. It should periodically record any changes to the number of civil servants," he said.

An expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Medelina Kusharwanti, said the government had been inconsistent in setting policies on civil servants.

"The government is weak. Under the 1999 law on civil service principles, the government could not promote contract employees to the status of civil servants. However, this policy changed under Law No. 48/2005," she said.

"It seems as though the government issued the law just because it was pressured by contract employees."

Medelina was speaking at her presentation of her doctoral dissertation, "Analysis of the Civil Service Recruitment and Selection Policy in Indonesia", after being awarded her doctoral degree by UI's School of Social and Political Sciences.

Her dissertation drew on a study she conducted of the BKN, the State Ministry for Administrative Reforms, the Jakarta Civil Service Board and the Tangerang Civil Service Board.

Medelina said there was a lot of political will and intervention involved in selecting and recruiting civil servants.

"Institutions tend to recruit new employees who have close relations with existing civil servants," she said.

She urged the government to immediately establish an independent institution to design and implement civil service policies to improve the system.

"I suggest the government establish a state civil service commission. The commission could evaluate the performance of the implementation of civil service policies so the government will be more transparent," she said.

"Law No. 43/1999 actually stipulates the establishment of the commission. I just don't understand why the government has not established one yet," Medelina said.

Azhar held a similar view.

"We need an independent institution, like a judicial commission, to protect the civil service merit system. Such an institution would prevent irregularities in the system," he said. (trw)

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