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Jakarta Post

Ahok suggests eliminating district heads

In an effort to cut spending and boost efficiency, Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama wants to eliminate 44 district leader posts

Dewanti A. Wardhani and Sita W. Dewi (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, June 4, 2015

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Ahok suggests eliminating district heads

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n an effort to cut spending and boost efficiency, Jakarta Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama wants to eliminate 44 district leader posts.

Ahok says that structurally, a district head is not needed as municipal works are largely carried out by subdistrict leaders and mayors. According to Government Regulation No. 19/2008 on districts, one district in a city contains at least five subdistricts. There are 44 districts and 267 subdistricts in Jakarta.

'€œWe actually don'€™t need district leaders. If subdistrict offices work optimally, district leader positions can be completely eliminated,'€ Ahok told reporters at City Hall on Wednesday.

He went on to say that in order to eliminate district leader posts, a subdistrict leader must '€œact as the local estate manager'€.

Ahok said he understood that eliminating a district leader post was impossible as the position was regulated in Law No. 29/2007 on the Jakarta Administration.

However, he said that he would still try managing the city without district heads by maximizing the role of subdistrict heads.

Later this month, he said, the administration would hire 18,000 new contract workers that would work under the supervision of subdistrict heads. Each subdistrict leader will manage 40 to 70 contract workers who will be responsible for minor physical projects in subdistricts such as cleaning and fixing damaged roads.

'€œIf the subdistrict heads can successfully manage the contract workers, we can leave district leader posts empty. Districts will be managed by mayor'€™s assistants,'€ he said.

Each mayor in Jakarta has four official assistants: a government assistant, a finance and administration assistant, a welfare assistant and a development and environment assistant.

Separately, City secretary Saefullah said that a complete elimination of district leader posts would take a while as it was against the law. He said that it would not be simple as the government would need to issue a new regulation if Jakarta was to eliminate the posts.

'€œThe district leader post is regulated by the central government, so it will take time if we seriously want to eliminate this post. In the meantime, we are evaluating the performance district and subdistrict leaders in Jakarta,'€ Saefullah said at City Hall on Wednesday.

He confirmed that the city administration planned to eliminate 44 deputy district leader posts. The move follows a previous program to scrap up to 1,500 unnecessary positions in the administration earlier this year.

'€œWe introduced a trial by removing deputy subdistrict leader posts and have proven that service still runs as usual after the removal,'€ Saefullah said.

The city would have to revise a bylaw to scrap the deputy district posts. That was why, Saefullah said, the program could not be carried out immediately. He said he had to make sure that the absence of deputy districts would not hamper the service.

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