Among the many reforms Indonesia instituted after 1998, the resolution to downsize a bloated bureaucracy and make government more efficient stands out as one of the most significant.

For the three decades prior to the end of the New Order, a job in government was a ticket to lifetime employment – and profiting from unnecessary red tape.

The reform era has begun to change some of these mind-sets. The government, it must be said, is more responsive than in the past. But the bloated bureaucracy remains and has actually grown larger, burdening the state budget. The over-the-top hiring of civil servants has become unmanageable and costly – so much so that a hiring freeze may soon come into effect.

In an effort to control skyrocketing salary spending, Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi has announced that the government will decide in a month's time whether to impose a freeze on hiring new civil servants. His ministry is now in talks with the state administrative reform minister and the finance minister under the coordination of the vice president to determine how to rein in the problem.

We welcome the move and urge the government to push for a smaller, more efficient bureaucracy. Civil servants should be targeted to specific jobs and all departments should account for the number of people they hire.

New civil servants are unevenly distributed around the country and often are not assigned according to their areas of expertise. Even more concerning is the fact that in more than 294 municipalities and cities, salaries and staff expenses account for more than 50 percent of the total regional budget. In some places, it is even more than that.

According to the Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), there are 16 regions in 2011 that have spent more than 70 percent of their regional budget on salaries. The East Java district of Lumajang topped the list with 83 percent of its budget. Only 1 percent was devoted to capital spending.

If this is where our money is going, it is no surprise that many regions continue to have poor infrastructure and woeful public services. If we are to remain true to the spirit of reform, this must change and the public's money must be put to much better use.