Jakarta – Inefficient management, a sluggish culture and corruption are among the challenges faced by the Indonesian government in launching bureaucratic reform, says a senior minister.

"An efficient bureaucracy can support the infrastructure development in this country, therefore bureaucratic reform is very important," Administrative Reforms Minister Azwar Abubakar said at the Bureaucracy Reform Conference, Exhibition and Stakeholder Meeting on Monday.

Indonesia Ombudsman chairman Danang Girindrawardana concurred, saying that transparency in the state's agencies was essential in creating an efficient bureaucracy.

"The government and the public have different perspectives regarding bureaucratic reform. The government still thinks that the bureaucrats are the consumers when in fact the actual consumer is the public," Danang said during the conference.

"Public participation in putting pressure on state officials plays a great role in ensuring transparency. Therefore, bureaucratic reform should not only be a discourse among government officials but also a way for the public to claim their rights," he added.

According to Danang, the Ombudsman and the ministry are currently preparing a public service unit that will be placed in all ministries and government bodies to deal with public complaints. "We have to make sure that the complaints are followed up," he said.

Eko Prasojo, the Administrative Reforms deputy minister, said that the government would start to implement the public service complaint units nationally by next year, including appointing an official to handle complaints.

He added that in the short term the ministry would focus on the units dealing with public complaints at government institutions directly involved with the public such as tax offices, customs and the National Land Agency to make sure that the public saw an immediate improvement in quality.

"Government bodies that are reluctant to set up public complaints units will receive either administrative or criminal sanctions," Eko said without going into details. According to Eko, support from the public and donors to accelerate reform was essential.

The Bureaucracy Reform Conference, Exhibition and Stakeholder Meeting was organized by the ministry in collaboration with the Institute of State Administration (LAN), the University of Indonesia, Paramadina University, Canberra University and the Australian government overseas aid program AusAID.

The conference and exhibition is being held at Hotel Bidakara in Jakarta and open to the public from Aug. 27 through 29. "This conference and exhibition aims to develop a multi-stakeholder partnership in order to assist us to implement bureaucratic reform," Eko said.

Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Greg Moriarty said that Australia through AusAID was ready to assist Indonesia in reforming its public sector, as anticorruption and good governance work was a key focus of AusAID's Rp 5.37 trillion (US$564.3 million) annual program in Indonesia.

"Indonesia has very significant infrastructure, health and education challenges but progress is being made and there are many people in the government who are committed to bureaucratic reform and committed to reducing corruption. I'm very optimistic and I'm also realistic that this will be a long process and difficult and challenging," Moriarty said.

"I think there are some areas where we can share experience. The first important step is getting people and citizens feeling empowered to complain when they don't get good service and when they are faced with corruption," he added. (nad)