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wenty-six-year-old Fatih Alfal never thought he would find joy working for the Jakarta administration. He is an expert staff member for Jakarta Smart City (JSC), a program that utilizes technology to better serve people.

It was pouring at 5 p.m. one afternoon, already past his working hours, but Fatih could still be found in JSC’s high-tech headquarters at City Hall in Central Jakarta.

“I’m glad to be working here. I’m happy to be part of a change,” Fatih told The Jakarta Post recently.

Fatih is one of 80 young staff members hired by the JSC management to bring change to the administration through a digital approach.

He is an officer in the citizen relations management (CRM) division. The CRM team works in the JSC’s monitoring room, where large screens are attached to its only concrete wall — the other walls are made of glass.

Eight officers on the CRM team are front-liners who ensure, with the help of the JSC’s complaint handling apps such as QLUE, that the city’s response time continues to accelerate. They aim to ensure that all reports are responded to and that city officials do their jobs accordingly.

“Bureaucracy is notorious for its lack of management. What we’re doing here proves that the city now has the ability to solve problems quickly. We respond to people’s complaints, work with city officials faster and better,” he added.

According to JSC unit head Setiaji, since it was introduced in 2014, the JSC has reduced the time it takes to respond to complaints to 28 hours, from 300. The program receives roughly 15,000 reports in a month through email, social media and the QLUE app.

Another CRM staff member, Sarinah Fitria, lauded Fatih, saying that she loved the JSC work environment. The resident of Depok, West Java, joined the team in 2016. She is responsible for monitoring 7,300 CCTV cameras installed throughout the city.

“Although our office is in City Hall, we’re not obligated to wear uniforms. Plus, look at our office, it’s fun and casual like a start-up company. How could we not love this place?” Sarinah said.

Daniel Sitorus, 26, saw the digitalization applied within the administration as a double-edged sword. His main job is to provide suggestions and counsel to city officials who experience trouble in addressing problems reported by the people, which he mostly does through WhatsApp chats.

“Trying to increase city officials’ digital literacy will always be a never-ending challenge,” he said.

JSC unit head Setiaji said it was the young workers who fueled the program as they came up with fresh ideas to improve the program every day.

In 2016, the JSC received a GovInsider Innovation award for Best Team Under 35. The award was given to celebrate young officials who have used their skills and experience to help shape government services.

GovInsider is a Singapore-based team of experts (writers, developers, data scientists and government enthusiasts) that focuses on helping governments across the Asia-Pacific improve.

For 2019, Setiaji mentioned that the city had allocated some Rp 70 billion (US$4.8 million) from its 2019 budget for the program, an increase from last year’s budget of around Rp 40 billion.

“We’ll use the money to expand our services. We’d like to improve our big data and our data collection to support the city’s data-driven policymaking,” he said.

One of his dreams for the JSC is to ensure social protection for Jakartans, especially for low-income families. Setiaji wishes to establish a system that is able to not only record but also profile every individual in the city and identify what social protection programs they are in.

“Say in a family, for example, there is father, a mother and a kid. We could know whether they are covered by the BPJS [Healthcare and Social Security Agency], KJP Plus [Jakarta Health Card Plus] or any other social protection program. This would ensure no one’s left behind or getting double benefits,” Setiaji explained.

He added that the team was not looking for new additions. “What we have right now is enough and works very well,” he said.