TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Govt to hold 'glamping' retreat for regional heads amid budget efficiency
A "glamping" retreat for newly installed regional heads has raised some controversy, coming as it does amid the government's sweeping efficiency measure.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Newly installed ministers of President Prabowo Subianto’s Red and White Cabinet stand at attention on Oct. 25, 2024, during a three-day special retreat at the Indonesian Military Academy in Magelang, Central Java. (-/Prabowo’s Media Team/Handout via Reuters)
T
he government plans to hold a weeklong retreat for newly installed regional heads in Magelang, Central Java, to enhance central-regional governmental coordination, following their simultaneous inauguration slated for Feb. 20 in Jakarta.
The planned retreat has raised concerns over funding, however, as it will be held amid the ongoing budget efficiency for ministries, agencies and regional administrations to cut spending.
A total of 505 governors, regents, mayors and their deputies who won the 2024 regional head elections are expected to fly out this Thursday, immediately after taking their oaths of office, to join the “glamping” retreat at the Borobudur International Golf and Country Club, around 1.4 kilometers north of the National Military Academy in Magelang.
To finance the event, each regional administration was initially expected to allocate Rp 22 million (US$1,357) as mandated by a Home Ministry circular issued on Feb. 11, which also required this amount, which would cover participants’ accommodation and meals, be paid in advance to PT Lembah Tidar Indonesia.
But the ministry later backtracked and replaced this scheme in another circular on Feb. 13, saying it would use the ministerial budget to finance the estimated cost of Rp 11 billion for the retreat.
“This decision was made as part of the ministry’s responsibility as the supervisor and overseer of regional administrations,” Deputy Home Minister Bima Arya Sugiarto said on Thursday.
Read also: Costs of regional administration heads’ retreat borne by central government
