Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – A quarter of 45 ministries and state institutions have been given "red marks" for failure to implement dozens of national development priority programs in the first half of the year.
Chief of the Presidential Work Unit for Development Monitoring and Control (UKP4), Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, said Thursday that the low-performing institutions included the Public Works Ministry, the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, the Communications and Infor-mation Technology Ministry, and the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
He said that of the 14 sectors President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had marked out in February as targets of the government's accelerated development program, infrastructure was the sector with the most red marks.
The sectors include bureaucratic reform, education, health, poverty eradication, food resilience, energy security, and improving the business and investment climate.
"As of the end of June, of the 369 sub-action plans, 58 received very satisfactory marks, 235 satisfactory, 15 unsatisfactory, and 49 disappointing," Kuntoro said, adding that the red marks were recorded with the offices of all the coordinating ministers.
Kuntoro stopped short of mentioning the failed sub-action plans of each institution, but said that "among the sub-action plans that have failed to reach the targets are the establishment of a national agency for the management of boundary regions and the completion of the bill on goods and servi-ces procurement at government departments".
"Another is the construction and development of 19 new penitentiaries by the Justice and Human Rights Ministry," Kuntoro told a press conference after Thursday's Cabinet plenary meeting at the Presidential Office.
The meeting agenda covered the half-year evaluation on the implementation of the 2010 Presidential directive on the acceleration of the 2010 national development priority programs.
While some of the institutions were given red marks, others were commended for surpassing the targets.
Kuntoro said these included the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry for the domestic coal market obligation and the North Sumatra and Riau administrations for completing regulations on feasibility studies on environmental impact analysis for business plans. He added there were no rewards or punishment for high and low performers.
The President said while opening the plenary meeting that although the ministers had signed an integrity pact and performance contract, the only outcome that he and Vice President Boediono wanted to see was "good performance".
"If there is an evaluation [of the Cabinet's performance], then it will not be conducted subjectively," he said, acknowledging that some of his ministers failed to meet their targets.
"Poor performance can be improved. Officials can make mistakes and fail, but they have to immediately mend their mistakes. They have to be responsible," he added.
During a gathering with reporters last month, the President said he would evaluate the performance of his Cabinet annually and did not rule out the possibility of conducting a reshuffle should some of them not perform.