T

he Jakarta administration continues with its bureaucratic reform and will inaugurate in January around 6,000 newly promoted officials who won positions through an open-call recruitment process.

Regional secretary Saefullah said the currently under-performing officials would be demoted or transferred to other agencies. Previously, the city administration had planned to inaugurate only 2,000 officials.

'€œWe have evaluated officials of all echelons in the past months. Those who are under-performing will be demoted or transferred [...] They are those who have been involved in '€˜irregularities'€™ in budget spending and those who have made no significant achievements during their tenure,'€ Saefullah told a number of reporters in his office at City Hall in Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

He said Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama had requested to meet all the new officials to brief them before they started working.

'€œPak Ahok asked to meet with all the new officials. He gave them the chance to choose which agency or board they would prefer. They were also given the chance to choose their deputies. This way, they will be able to work well,'€ Saefullah said.

Separately, Jakarta Employment Agency (BKD) head Made Karmayoga said the administration would slash 1,599 echelon positions, reducing them from 8,110 to 6,511.

'€œIn total, we will remove some 1,500 echelon positions. However, we are still evaluating and testing our civil servants. Therefore, this number is still tentative,'€ Made said by text message.

He said that the 6,511 positions consisted of five echelon IB positions; 47 echelon IIA; 48 echelon IIB; 622 echelon IIIA; 268 echelon IIIB; 2,961 echelon IVA; and 2,560 echelon IVB.

Among others, echelon II positions include agency heads and mayors; echelon III positions include agency unit heads, municipal agency heads, technical management unit heads and district heads; and echelon IV positions include subdistrict heads, sub-unit heads and community health center heads.

Meanwhile, Jakarta Organization and Governance Bureau (Ortala) head Tedy, said the Jakarta Construction Supervision and Regulation Agency (P2B) and the Jakarta Spatial Planning Agency would be merged into an agency called the City Infrastructure and Means Agency.

He said the administration would also erase the position of Tourism Agency deputy head and had created a number of agency deputy head positions in other agencies, such as the Public Order Agency, Health Agency and the Tax Office.

The administration is currently applying a massive overhaul in the effort to create an efficient bureaucracy. Ahok had previously stated that the city'€™s officials would be evaluated every three months. The city also plans to erase 751 structural positions in the city'€™s agencies and replace them with functional positions.