City councilors have urged the administration to apply transparent fit and proper tests when recruiting top-level officials in order to curb corruption and nepotism.
Some parties, including the Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN), said the recruitment process should be based on their skills and ability.
"The administration must adopt 'the right man for the right job' principle. Fit and proper tests are important so that each post will have a qualified person," said Ernawati Sugondo from the Democratic Party.
"This is bureaucratic reform ... The administration should also improve its public service by paring down its system and procedure, procuring a complaint center and training staff," she said.
Abdullah Prawiradirdja from the United Development Party (PPP) shared a similar opinion.
"The fit and proper test should be transparent, accountable and credible. Besides that, the recruitment of top-level officials should be considered from a list of best candidates," Abdullah said.
"The administration should closely monitor low-level officials, like those in community units, neighborhood communities and subdistricts, because they directly serve the public," he said.
Thamrin from the National Mandate Party said it was the best time for the administration to change its culture.
"It should provide more transparent and better services to the public," Thamrin said.
The administration is drafting revisions of regional bylaws on organizational structure as part of efforts to slim down the number of city agencies.
It is now waiting for the draft to be approved by the City Council.
The restructuring program is in accordance with a 2007 governmental decree on regional structure. The administration hopes to save on expenditures and make the administration more professional and efficient through the slimmer structure.
According to the decree, a city with a population of more than 7.5 million people and a city budget of more than Rp 2 trillion (US$202 million) must make do with one city secretary, four assistants, a secretary to the city council, 18 agencies and 12 technical bodies.
The new structure will cut several posts. For example, five assistants to the city secretary will become four, 11 bureaus become 10, 26 agencies become 20 and 16 technical bodies become 10.
It will also merge a number of agencies to meet the required structure stipulated by the regulation.
The primary education and the secondary and higher education agencies, for example, will merge to form a single education agency.
The agriculture and forestry and the fisheries and maritime agencies will become the Jakarta Food Resilience and Maritime Agency.
The city's office for building management, for instance, will become part of the housing agency, to be renamed the Jakarta Housing and Regional Building Agency.
A new Jakarta Green Area and Cemetery Agency will come out of a merger of the parks and the public cemetery agencies.
City officials, however, have not yet specified to what extent staff positions will be eliminated.
Governor Fauzi Bowo said the 2009 budget would be submitted to the Home Ministry right after the City Council approved the new organizational structure.
