Jakarta – Minister of Administrative Reforms Taufik Effendy said Tuesday that the first ever accountability evaluation report for state agencies confirmed the bureaucracy was more interested in getting their share of the annual state budget than producing beneficial outcomes for the country.
The State Ministry for Administrative Reform announced the results of its state agency accountability evaluation at their headquarters in Central Jakarta on Tuesday.
"By having standard methods of evaluation, we can prevent the agencies wasting resources, including money from the state budget," the minister said, adding that there was clearly a lack of professionalism among the civil service.
Deputy of Accountability for the ministry, Herri Yana Sutisna, told The Jakarta Post that the 74 evaluated agencies scored an average of 42.71 out of 100, well below the minimum standard of 50.
According to the ministry's evaluation, the Education Ministry scored the highest with 75.35, while the Judicial Commission Secretariat scored less than 17 on the same scale.
Herri said the ministry evaluated the agencies' accountability according to their capability to plan, report, and evaluate projects, as well as the output and outcomes of those projects.
This method deems a bureau's ability to plan as the most important, giving it the biggest share of 35 in the scoring system.
The evaluation was carried out from September to November last year using the criteria reference test method, Herri said. "We received accountability reports from the agencies before going to the field for an inspection."
The evaluation method currently has only been able to measure systemic achievements of the agencies, and cannot be used to measure the practices at a staff level. "We are putting the staff and human resource aspect to one side, at least for the time being," he said.
"The Education Ministry proved it was able to consistently plan and report its outcomes accordingly," Herri said. "Most agencies cannot even plan projects properly. They often start projects without reporting them first."
The Judicial Commission Secretariat fared poorly in this area, he added.
Herri said agencies must sign a working contract with a higher body, for example, through a Ministry with a Minister's permission, before undergoing any projects. At the end of the agency's working period, it must report its output in the same manner.
"However, most agencies prefer to skip this process, or some claim that they have a working contract when they are actually carrying out projects solo," Herri said.
Public complaints over corrupt and incompetent public officials are reported in the media on a daily basis but there has been no improvement, with many surveys suggesting public services are actually getting worse and that most agencies are corrupt.
Minister Taufik said recently that over 60 percent of the country's current 3.6 million public servants were incompetent and poorly suited to their jobs. He said the number of civil servants would be reduced by at least one million in order to improve efficiency. (dis)