Bagus Budi Tama Saragih, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 02/06/2010 1:01 PM
Administrative Reforms Minister Evert Erenst Mangindaan criticizes the plan of a number of government agencies to raise the monthly salary of their staff.
The Finance Ministry announced recently that starting March 1, it would raise the monthly salaries of all civil servants by 20 percent at the ministry.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati defended the decision and said the salary level of most civil servants at the ministry was relatively low and therefore the remuneration system had been reviewed because the wage level was no longer proportional with civil servants' work load, authority, responsibility and risks.
Mangindaan argued that a wage hike was not the only way the bureaucracy reform could improve civil servants' productivity and the government's performance.
"According to my observation, there has been a major disorientation in bureaucracy reform, particularly in state agencies that have focused only on salary and allowances hikes," he said.
A number of ministries and government agencies had begun reforming administrations and the bureaucracy system but most have made the salary and allowance adjustment on top of other elements in the bureaucracy reformation, Mangindaan said.
Raising wages would not guarantee a better and more effective bureaucracy, he added.
"Salary adjustment is only a small part of bureaucracy reform. The more important elements are to reform organization structure, business processes and human resources management," he explained.
Mangindaan said that 101 representatives from 12 ministries and government agencies had been trained and received technical assistance from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
"Korea is one country that succeeded to defuse its economic crisis through a major bureaucracy reform with the so-called *government innovation'," he said.
In Korea, Mangindaan said, the reformation was comprehensive and focused not only on wage hikes.
"Salary adjustment was important as rewards for civil servants but not the key for the success of a comprehensive bureaucracy reform," he said.
In Indonesia, according to data from the Finance Ministry, the monthly salary of ministers is about Rp 17 million (US$1,819), while the President receives Rp 69 million.
However, there are also other funds such as operational funds for ministers, which can amount to Rp 150 million per month.
The government's plan to raise civil servant salaries has also sparked strong criticism from the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW).
ICW coordinator Danang Wido-yoko said that the government had always shown the small salaries of civil servants but hid other allowances such as the honorarium on other operational funds.
"They receive big money every month, mostly top-level officials and local government leaders, but corruption continues," he said.
Therefore, he added, a raise would not necessarily curb corruption. He cited an example of a 500 percent rise in customs and excise officials as a measure to prevent corruption. "Corruption is still widespread in that institution," he said. "The salary raise of civil servants, mostly top-level ones, must be rejected."
