T

he city administration is considering the dismissal of the Jakarta Investment and Promotion Office (BPMP) and the Governor'€™s Team for Development Supervision (TGUPP) to downsize the city'€™s bureaucracy.

City secretary Saefullah said that the city aimed to establish a more effective administration by erasing unnecessary working units and positions.

'€œWe are continuing our efforts to streamline the city administration because we want to establish a modest yet functional organization,'€ Saefullah said at City Hall during the inauguration of 24 echelon III officials.

The BPMP functions as a supervising body for city-owned firms, while the TGUPP supervises development projects in the city administration.

The TGUPP was a new unit formed under the administration of then Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, believed to be created for troubled high-rank officials. Former Transportation Agency head and graft suspect Udar Pristono was among the officials who was once put in the unit.

Further, Saefullah said, the city would also get rid of several positions, including district and subdistrict deputy heads, and reduce the number of technical management units (UPT) under agencies. Aside from downsizing the city'€™s bureaucracy, he said that erasing the working units and positions also aimed to minimize employee spending, which this year has been set at Rp 19 trillion (US$1.4 billion) of the city'€™s total budget of Rp 69.28 trillion.

'€œOur employee spending this year is Rp 19 trillion. We want to minimize the spending to Rp 17 trillion or Rp 15 trillion, but still want to have good services and performance,'€ he said.

Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama said that after an '€œin depth analysis'€, the city administration had concluded that BPMP and the TGUPP were unnecessary units in the city administration and would be erased soon.

'€œWe don'€™t need the BPMP to supervise city-owned firms. There are various institutions which can do their job, such as the BPK [Supreme Audit Agency],'€ Ahok told reporters at City Hall on Friday.

He further said the city administration was planning to establish a holding company to better manage its firms. Ahok said that firms involved in a similar business, such as bus operator PT Transportasi Jakarta (Transjakarta) and mass rapid transit (MRT) project operator PT MRT Jakarta as well as market operator PD Pasar Jaya and slaughterhouse company PD Dharma Jaya, would be incorporated as one company.

Ahok went on to say that the city'€™s projects were thus far progressing as scheduled and therefore the TGUPP was no longer relevant.

'€œFurther, many UPTs are unneeded, such as terminal and sports hall UPTs. Instead we will turn to private companies to manage terminals and sports halls,'€ he said.

Separately, Jakarta Employment Agency (BKD) head Agus Suradika said that the number of the city administration'€™s civil servants have decreased over the years, from 72,000 last year to 69,235 this year.

'€œThe number of civil servants in the city administration has reduced due to retirement. Also, we have not been recruiting as many civil servants as previous years,'€ Agus told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Friday.

Agus further said that the city administration this year will not hold an open recruitment for civil servants to replace those who have retired.

'€œThere will not be a large open recruitment this year. We will only hold an open recruitment for teachers,'€ he said.

Thus, he said, the number of civil servants would naturally decrease over the years.