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New Perpres requires Jokowi's approval for ministerial, state agency regulations
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo speaks during a meeting on Aug. 7, 2021 to evaluate the results of the four-tier public activity restrictions (PPKM) policy. (Courtesy of Presidential Secretariat Press Bureau/-)
P
resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has issued a new regulation requiring his ministers to seek his approval before issuing any new regulations, a move that experts fear could potentially create an administrative bottleneck in the regulatory process.
Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 68/2021, which came into effect on Aug. 6, formally paved the way for Jokowi to have a final say in whether to approve or reject draft regulations formulated by ministries or other central government institutions.
The Perpres, however, stipulates that Jokowi’s approval is only required for draft regulations that are estimated to have a far-reaching impact on the public, involve many institutions and have strategic scope, such as related to the government’s Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN), defense or state finance.
The Perpres also mandates that the Law and Human Rights Ministry must vet all draft regulations before they are submitted to the President in order to ensure that they do not contradict existing regulations.
Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said the Perpres had been issued to ensure that proposed regulations were in line with Jokowi’s directive or the decisions made in Cabinet meetings.
“The President ordered us to formulate this regulation not only to ensure that [new regulations] are administratively in order, but also so that the President’s directives, or the President’s decisions made during Cabinet meetings, are interpreted correctly [by the Cabinet members],” Pramono said in a statement on Tuesday.
Pramono said the order to issue the Perpres came after Jokowi observed that many of his ministers during his first term often issued regulations that overlapped or contradicted with other ministers. He also reassured that the new regulation would not create new red tape that would lengthen the bureaucratic process for issuing new ministerial or other central government bodies.
