Lenny Tristia Tambun – Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo said he was just getting started after replacing several senior city officials on Friday in a bid to make the capital's bureaucratic management more efficient.

Among those being reassigned to new posts are the current chief of the sanitation agency, Eko Bharuna, Jakarta Financial Management Body chief Sukri Bey and several high-ranking officials at the housing agency and the Indonesian Civil Servants Corps.

"Nothing is out of the ordinary. We replaced our management, some got transferred and some got promoted. It's nothing unusual," Joko said. "This is just the beginning. I will review everyone and their performance."

Budhiastuti, the administration's human resource agency chief, said the officials transferred were those who were entering retirement age. The governor, she said, wanted succession to be done swiftly so that work would not be hindered by the retirement process.

Budhiastuti added that there were nine others who would soon reach retirement age, signaling that they would also likely be replaced soon. The nine senior officials include city secretary Fadjar Panjaitan, West Jakarta Mayor Burhanuddin and Public Order Agency chief Effendi Anas.

Sanitation agency chief Eko confirmed that he would retire, adding that he would be replaced by his deputy Unu Nurdin. "Yes, I will be replaced. It's okay, I'm already 59 years old and [my retirement] has been postponed twice," he said.

The Jakarta administration plans to raise the salaries of its civil servants in 2014 in an attempt to boost their performance and encourage them to provide optimum public services.

Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said the administration's main focus on improving the bureaucracy would require not only recruiting new employees and improving human resources but also improving the welfare of civil servants.

"If their welfare is good, they can work without worrying about making ends meet or worrying about their families," he said on Thursday.

The administration plans to match public sector salaries with private sector pay so that civil servants can work more professionally. The move also aims to discourage civil servants from corruption because low pay might make them open to bribery.

Basuki said the size of the salary increase would depend on the city's revenue. "We haven't decided it yet. This is still a plan. Let's just wait for the regional revenue," he said.

"Most importantly we want to make people feel proud that they work here [in the city administration]; as proud as people who work at Citibank or oil companies. "So the decision on whether or not to raise [their salary] might depend on incentives or an increase in revenue," he added.

Basuki warned that if after the salary increase civil servants were still found not working their hardest, committing corruption, delivering poor-quality work or otherwise being poor at their jobs, he would punish them in line with the government regulation on civil servant discipline.

"If their welfare has been improved through the salary hike, they will be sanctioned if they can't balance it with good performance and public service," he said. He added that the recruitment of new civil servants would be based on the system established in the National Civil Service Agency.