The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry has complained about a lack of personnel to supervise Indonesian territorial waters and has made plans to recruit more civil servants in the coming years to improve its sea supervision task force.

Maritime and Fisheries Monitoring Task Force (PSDKP) general director Asep Burhanudin said the number of supervisory and administrative personnel was very low compared to the area under their command.

He cited the administration and ship crew monitoring division in Belawan, where the administrative office has 143 people to handle nine surrounding provinces from which, on average, there are 50 to 100 applications for fishing ship operation (SLO) permits per day.

PSDKP ship operations director Goenarno said the task force currently had 27 monitoring boats, which were supposed to be operated by 442 officers in total, but there were in fact only 276 full-time civil servants, 77 civil servant candidates (CPNS) and 89 contract workers.  

With the ministry set to increase the number of monitoring boats to 31, new personnel are urgently required. Unfortunately, the recruitment process is said to be slow and complicated, with only 12 of 140 CPNS inaugurated as civil servants in 2015.

However, Asep said the ministry could not do much as it was not part of its authority to appoint new civil servants. Recruiting from other parties such as the Navy was also not possible as the Navy itself was facing a lack of personnel, he added. (ags)

Popular

Volcano erupts in North Sulawesi, hundreds evacuated

Dubai roads, airport reel from floods after record rains

Ramadan boosts consumer confidence, retail sales