Lenny Tristia Tambun & Hotman Siregar – Twenty-six high-ranking bureaucrats in the Jakarta administration were removed from office and replaced on Wednesday as part of a sweeping reshuffle ordered by Governor Joko Widodo amid widely publicized shortcomings.

Among the top officials stripped of their posts were Udar Pristono, the head of the Jakarta Transportation Office; Taufik Yudi Mulyanto, the head of the education office; and Unu Nurdin, the head of the city sanitation agency. Others were West Jakarta Mayor Fatahillah and Sugiyanta, the head of the city communications and information technology office.

Joko said the decision to move so many officials to new positions was because their offices were not delivering.

"Ideally, [a government] office or working unit shouldn't be manned for only a year or two," he said at City Hall on Wednesday following the announcement of the reshuffle. "They should be in place for three or four years so that the city leaders can understand the issues."

He said the individuals affected had failed to follow through with their programs and plans, and that many of the activities implemented under their watch were merely ceremonial, with no tangible outcome.

"Their programs, even after receiving orders, wouldn't go as planned. Their work was merely ceremonial, done simply to please the boss," Joko said.

The lack of any real outcome from city officials comes at a time when plenty is expected of the city administration from its people, the governor said. "What is needed of us is real work with real results – work that is real and tangible, that can be physically proven, touched and seen," he said.

Public policy expert Agus Pambagio said Joko's announcement only confirmed the failings of top administration officials, and called on Joko and Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama not to protect such officials.

"I don't get why those problematic officials are being retained when not only are they disrupting the work of their agencies, but they're making the administration look bad," he said.

He cited the case of Udar, now relieved of the post of transportation chief, as a prime example of an official who had failed to perform his duty.

Udar's office, long blamed for Jakarta's worsening traffic and inadequate public transportation system, has come under fire this past week over revelations that a batch of ostensibly new buses bought from China for the TransJakarta network and a new line of feeder routes, known as BKTB, had broken components are were even found to be rusting.

Problems included malfunctioning power steering, rusted frames, dashboard instruments that were unscrewed, and moldy air-conditioning units.

Joko said earlier this week that he had already ordered an investigation into the matter. "Someone has to be held responsible for this. Who? I think we already know," he said on Monday.

Basuki on Wednesday raised the possibility that the tender for the procurement of the buses had been rigged. He said that to prevent similar fiascoes in future, he had asked the city inspectorate to monitor all projects to procurement of goods and services by the various city agencies.

The city administration has decided to suspend the remaining payment, Rp 600 billion ($49.8 million), of the total Rp 1 trillion owed to the suppliers after the inspectorate determined that the buses were not roadworthy.

"We've called [the inspectorate] and it is true that the items are unfit for use, which is why we've decided not to pay. If they insist, then we will take this to court," Basuki said.

"That is why we need experts to prove that the specifications of the buses are below the standards determined by the BPPT [Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology]."

Udar said he had no objections to Joko's decision to remove him from his post. "I am a civil servant, a staff to the governor and deputy governor, so I am ready to be placed anywhere," he said. "Reshuffles are normal, and God willing, I am ready for any task the governor may give me."

Another city official under intense public criticism recently but not included in Wednesday's reshuffle was Manggas Rudy Siahaan, the head of the Jakarta Public Works Office.

His agency has become the target of graft allegations linked to the contracts to build and maintain the city's roads, following extensive flood damage that has left entire streets cratered with potholes.

Official data show that damage to roads in the last two weeks has increased by 133.6 percent. Some 3,903 damaged sites needed to be repaired, up from 2,234 a month ago. It is likely that there are cases of road damage that have not made it into the official count.

The Jakarta administration, which last December conceded that its "zero hole" program to fix all potholed roads had failed, said it would roll out the program again this year.

Soegeng Purnomo, an expert on road construction with the Indonesia Transportation Society, recently said contractors hired by the city to repair the damage had failed to properly carry out their work and instead strayed from the guidelines set up by the government.

"The quality of the roads in Jakarta are simply woeful," he said. "And to make matters worse, the process of fixing them is just as bad."

Workers rarely follow proper procedures when patching potholes, he argued. The substandard work is little more than a temporary fix for what quickly becomes a reoccurring problem.

"So you have a case where the mix of materials in the hot-mix isn't even up to standard, and then it's being poured at a much lower temperature than required, usually less than 100 degrees Celsius," Soegeng said. "So obviously you end up with a stretch of road that will easily become potholed again."