Indonesian diplomatic services ‘will dry up’ in early 2012

The Indonesian diplomatic mission will likely be ineffective in January and February due to financial hurdles in its budgetary system, says Indonesian Ambassador to Switzerland Djoko Susilo.

“The wheels of our diplomacy engine overseas do not rotate for at least the first two months of the year because the books are closed by the end of the year while the annual budget is disbursed in March at the earliest,” the Indonesian ambassador to Switzerland said in Bern on Tuesday.

He cited that all diplomatic missions abroad were required to close their books on Jan. 19, 2011, and that no financial transactions and expenditures were allowed until their financial report was sent to Jakarta and that there would be no diplomatic activities in the first two months of the year.

“Because of the absence of spending, diplomatic activities are dormant and most diplomats spend more time sleeping, besides doing their routine jobs. Practically, we serve only passport and visa applicants in January and February. You can imagine how much all Indonesian embassies overseas have to pay inactive diplomats and local staff for at least the first two months mainly because of the rigid budget system.”

Due to the budget system, most embassies start spending their capital, including on goods procurement and program implementation, in June.

“Most career ambassadors and diplomats are silent over this inefficiency and ineffective diplomacy because they do not have the courage to speak out,” he said. He called on the secretary-general at the Foreign Ministry and the director general of budget affairs at the Finance Ministry to seek a new breakthrough to end the diplomatic vacuum.

He also said that the House of Representatives and the Finance Ministry should improve the budget for Indonesian citizens’ protection and promotion programs to help improve Indonesia’s standing in the eyes of the international forum. “Of the US$204,000 budget allocated for the Indonesian Embassy in Bern in 2011, the government has allocated only $10,000 for citizen protection programs and $30,000 for the promotion program. The embassy cannot do much in the two fields, not only because of the small budget but also because of the strengthening of the Swiss franc in the past three years.”

Djoko criticized the rigid procurement and logistics system which had forced foreign diplomatic missions to store scrapped goods, which had made the diplomatic mission less efficient.

“A lot of office equipment, such as printers, computers and cars that have had to be scrapped cannot be phased out from the books and dumped because of the rigid regulations from the directorate general for the state treasure at the Finance Ministry and the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK). Many embassies have to rent storage space to keep the scrapped goods,” he said, citing that the embassy had paid 1,000 Swiss francs to rent out a storage space for scrapped cars and other office equipment in the city.