T

he Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has been overhauled in an attempt to reform the graft-tainted institution and to regain public trust.

The ministry conducted a major shake-up on Thursday affecting officials in at least 38 middle and senior posts across the ministry, with new appointments being made from among applicants who had gone through an open selection process since late last year.

'€œThis marks a milestone in organizational consolidation at the ministry in which we see fresh faces at the top posts. We'€™ve almost finished [the consolidation] but we still need to go through to lower-level echelon 3 and 4 [positions, equivalent to heads of section],'€ said Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony.

Although the open selection process welcomed applicants from outside the ministry as well as those who were non-civil servants, the final decisions granted top posts to several familiar figures inside the ministry.

IGN Wiratmaja Puja was appointed as new director general for oil and gas, while the post for director general for minerals and coal went to Bambang Gatot Ariyono. There were no changes in the ministry'€™s director general for electricity and director for new-renewable energy and energy conservation which remain under incumbent Jarman and Rida Mulyana, respectively.

Meanwhile, the ministry'€™s secretary general of the National Energy Council (DEN) went to Satry Nugraha.

In addition to the top posts in the ministry, five deputies for the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Task Force (SKKMigas) were also installed on Thursday.

The ministry also rotated 22 officials out of the total 54 mid-rank posts in the ministry, recruiting 12 new officials. Some of them had no clue about their new appointments until their inaugurations.

'€œWe hope they will bring about a better performance in the future,'€ he added.

Industry players welcomed the moves taken by the ministry, expecting further reform to mend the industry'€™s poor image. '€œI'€™ve been 30 years in the oil and gas business and never seen this kind of radical organizational overhaul,'€ said Lukman Mahfoedz, the president director of PT Medco Energi Internasional and a director with the Indonesian Petroleum Association.

'€œI'€™m hoping for significant changes to follow and no more hesitation in making decisions on crucial matters,'€ he added.

Energy and mining have long been strategic sectors in the country'€™s economy in which oil and gas projects worth multi-billion dollars and lucrative mineral mining projects often lead vested interests, both business and political, to
interfere.

Several corruption cases in the sector under the previous administration caused public and business unease, prompting Sudirman '€” who was appointed minister in late October last year '€” to promise widespread changes to improve governance in the ministry.

Wiratmaja, who has been serving as acting director general for oil and gas since January following the sudden dismissal of the previous acting chief by Sudirman, said his priority would be in line with the ministry'€™s grand strategy of increasing exploration work to secure more hydrocarbon reserves, improving the downstream oil and gas sector with refinery development and fuel-to-gas conversion, enhancing the organizational structure at the oil and gas office and providing capacity building for its employees.

'€œWe want to make the directorate general a well-respected organization, providing services with clearer timelines and processes so that there are no more backdoor-deals,'€ Wiratmaja said.

The biggest challenge will likely be experienced by the minerals and coal directorate general because it is now led by a wholly new team after all previous directors were rotated to other posts.