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City relaxes overseas trip quota amid efforts to trim budget
Amid the City Legislative Council’s efforts to keep next year’s budget trim as part of its efficiency drive, Governor Anies Baswedan has issued a regulation that amends the fixed quota for official overseas trips with a needs-based criteria
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span>Amid the City Legislative Council’s efforts to keep next year’s budget trim as part of its efficiency drive, Governor Anies Baswedan has issued a regulation that amends the fixed quota for official overseas trips with a needs-based criteria.
Aside from amending the article on the number of delegates for official overseas trips, the new regulation drops articles on short courses and training workshops for professional development.
The previous gubernatorial regulation capped the quota for official overseas trips at five city employees, but Anies’ new regulation — which took immediate effect as soon as he signed it on Nov. 11 — allows the maximum number of delegates to be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Gubernatorial Regulation No. 123/2019 stipulates that the city administration should consider the effectiveness of any overseas trips when determining the number of delegates to be sent and requires written approval from either the governor or the city secretary to send more than five city employees.
Muhammad Mawardi, the head of the Jakarta administration’s gubernatorial and foreign affairs bureau, said that the number of delegates sent on official overseas trips would depend on the need.
“Official group trips, say, to a sports event, could [require] more than five [officials],” Mawardi said on Monday, but stressed that this was not a reason for the Jakarta administration to send more representatives than necessary.
“The governor should consider, for example, if more than five [officials] have been proposed for the [trip]. But depending on the urgency, it generally requires only two or three [officials],” he said.
Commenting on the new regulation, Jakarta councillor Mujiyono of the Democratic Party said that the same rule on delegate numbers should also apply to the legislative body.
No quota should be set for city councilors to be sent on official overseas trips, “particularly for specific legislative matters”, he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. “The revised article should not be a problem, as it is certainly based on experience at previous events,” he said.
Mujiyono also said that the revised articles would not have any significant impact on the city’s 2020 budget.
The Jakarta administration and the City Council recently agreed to set the ceiling for next year’s budget at Rp 87.9 trillion (US$6.25 billion), down from the Rp 95 trillion that the administration initially proposed to the council in July.
The administration revised its proposed budget ceiling to Rp 89 trillion in October, following projections of a potential budget deficit due to the administration’s sluggishness in realizing its tax collection target, while the central government had yet to disburse the funds from profit-sharing projects.
Gerindra Party politician Inggard Joshua said that an official overseas trip would need more than five representatives if the issue was relevant to several regional working units, and that the event had been carefully selected and determined as beneficial to the city.
“I don’t think it will cost much to add one or two more [officials]. But the activities must bear optimal results. It would be a waste if the cost of adding extra personnel were not [offset] by clear reports and benefits,” said Inggard.
He also suggested that briefs and reports on official trips should be addressed to the relevant council commission and not merely to the council board, for better management of the regional working units and to evaluate official trips.
