S

oon after his inauguration as the seventh president in October, Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo should promptly put the bureaucracy in order. Wasteful spending on official travel expenses, he has indicated lately, is only one of the government'€™s maladies. Many other ills have yet to be eliminated in order to create a healthy bureaucracy.

Lavish budget expenditure is reflected in the unreasonably large sums spent on out-of-town meetings and official trips. The central government'€™s travel expenses total Rp 35 trillion (US$3 billion) in the draft state budget for 2015, up by around 30 percent from last year'€™s allocation.

The Trade Ministry already published a guide book, Bureaucratic Reform in Practice, last year. It contains a number of formulas to improve the running of the government, such as the application of the e-office system, the introduction of an integrated licensing service, the use of performance standards, the practice of open recruitment and the development of integrity zones to fight corruption. However, such solutions have more often been discussed in seminars rather than implemented.

Jokowi was quite successful in his bureaucratic reordering while heading Jakarta. He is expected to provide direction in the bureaucratic reform of the central government. Along with his deputy, Jusuf Kalla, Jokowi is believed to be capable of controlling the bureaucratic restructuring to ensure greater effectiveness and efficiency.

'€” Koran Tempo, Jakarta