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ollowing reports of extortion in the open recruitment for echelon officials, the administration will make changes to the open recruitment system, including intensifying monitoring to prevent participants from cheating.

Jakarta Inspectorate head Lasro Marbun previously revealed that after the mass inauguration earlier this year, he had received dozens of reports of violations during the open recruitment.

Lasro said most of the reports were submitted anonymously, but all of them stated that certain candidates had secured positions by paying for them.

Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama said that in the upcoming open recruitment in April, he would personally interview echelon II and III candidates to avoid the appointment of unqualified individuals.

'€œI will personally interview echelon II and maybe echelon III candidates to make sure they have integrity and a determination to work well,'€ Ahok said at City Hall recently.

He went on to say that the assessment would emphasize on their track records in terms of performance and output. Previously, open recruitment relied heavily on test results.

'€œWe will still conduct written and psychology tests. However, this time, assessment will emphasize on their performance. The more achievements they have made, the more advantage they will have in the open recruitment,'€ Ahok said.

He went on to say that he had set specific criteria for the assessment of district and subdistrict heads, which were cleanliness, good service and quick one-stop integrated service (PTSP).

Each district and subdistrict has one PTSP office to serve residents in the issuance of permits for education, health, public works, housing, spatial planning, transportation, the environment and land, among many other matters.

'€œI have only three questions to evaluate the district and subdistrict heads '€” are their sewers clear of garbage? Are their services good enough? Do their PTSP offices provide quick and good service? If so, then they get a good assessment from me and they can keep their positions,'€ he said.

Separately, Lasro said that the Jakarta Inspectorate would increase supervision during the open recruitment and would provide instruction to the committees and participants to prevent cheating.

'€œWe will make sure that we don'€™t miss anything this time,'€ Lasro said.

Jakarta Employment Agency (BKD) head Agus Suradika said the agency was also preparing to conduct national open recruitment for the echelon I position of governor'€™s assistance on spatial planning and the environment, which has been vacant for months since Sarwo '€œYani'€ Handayani was moved to the Governor'€™s Team for Development Supervision.

He said 55 percent of the open recruitment participants would be reserved for the public and 45 percent for Jakarta civil servants.

'€œWe will form a special team to choose the new assistant. The team will consist of city officials and a number of experts to assess the candidates as well,'€ Agus said.

'€” JP/Dewanti A. Wardhani