T

he Administrative Reforms Ministry and the Indonesian Ombudsman are preparing a draft presidential regulation on public complaints on services provided by state institutions.

The draft is part of efforts to improve the quality of public services.

“The regulation stipulates that all state institutions, ministries and governmental bodies that serve the public will have to set up a unit to deal with public complaints,” Indonesian Ombudsman Danang Girindrawardana said in Jakarta on Thursday.

According to Danang, the regulation is in line with the law that stipulates that all public service institutions must provide a complaints facility and assign officers to handle public complaints.

“Most citizens didn’t know where to file complaints when, for example, they are asked for illegal fees from education institutions or community health centers [Puskesmas]. With this system, we hope we can accommodate all complaints from the public,” Danang said.

He said that the Administrative Reforms Ministry would supervise handling the complaints received by ministries and other institutions.

The office of the ombudsman, Danang said, would follow up complaints that could not be handled by the ministry.

“The ombudsman has the authority to recommend the dismissal of civil servants for violating their commitment to serve the public. Such recommendations are legally binding,” Danang said.

According to Administrative Reform Minister Azwar Abubakar, the draft regulation was almost finished and officials were completing promulgation of the new rules to all public institutions and ministries.

“The ministry is considering public service standards to be applied to all state’s bodies and ministries to make sure every institution has the same approach in serving the public,” Azwar told reporters.

“The system can also be implemented for filing complaints about civil service recruitment,” he added.

The regulation stipulates that each state institution or ministry will have to handle complaints within 30 days and resolved complaints within 60 days.

“We are hoping that in the future, the unit handling public complaints will go online to ease the supervision process,” Danang said.

He added that within the last three weeks, the ombudsman had received 152 complaints on illegal fees levies by public schools and on the disbursement of School Operational Assistance (BOS) funds.

“The regulation is made to improve the procedure of public services,” said Danang, (nad)