By: Raavi Iskandar) *
Trimming bureaucracy in Indonesia is not just a discourse. More than that, the realization is considered as part of the idea to improve the efficiency of the business community in investing.
The increasing number of echelon-level positions is suspected to add to the long list of complicated bureaucracy in the country. Not only inflated the state budget, but also related to slow performance in serving the people. In developed countries like Japan, there are only echelons I and II which act as actors in government. And the Minister only functions as a political symbol. Besides being considered effective and efficient, the sakura country is in fact able to survive with its economical bureaucracy .
At present, Minister of State Apparatus and Bureaucratic Reform ( MenPAN -RB), Tjahjo Kumolo is improving the echelon structure in all ministries in accordance with the direction of President Joko Widodo ( Jokowi ).
Trimming echelon III and IV is expected to be able to simplify the decision making process so that the bureaucracy becomes more efficient because so far the existence of echelon III and IV becomes a long range of bureaucracy so that it is felt less efficient . The aim of simplifying this echelon is part of bureaucratic reform to boost the investment climate. Given, so far Indonesia is known as a country with a fairly complicated and complicated bureaucracy.
In fact, bureaucracy is still a major problem that many investors complain about. In particular, foreign investors when they want to invest their money into the country. Because it is so complicated , these investors are forced to reverse direction to choose a neighboring country.
Based on the survey, it was recorded that the echelon III and IV cuts were significantly reduced. Meanwhile, based on data from the Ministry of State Apparatus Empowerment and Bureaucratic Reform (PAN RB), the number of echelon III is suspected to be around 98,947, echelon IV 327,771 is a sufficient number to make the government bureaucracy fat and high cost.
This streamlining effort is indeed a breakthrough that is considered positive because by cutting down the hierarchy, the decision making process will later become more efficient. However, other factors that also need to be considered are the cultural aspects and the work ethic of the state apparatus.
This bureaucratic problem has long been recognized as one of the challenges in efforts to encourage investment growth in Indonesia.
Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani also briefly stated that, in the middle of last year, the complicated bureaucracy was the main reason for the drop in investment flows into the archipelago.
Referring to the report Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the corruption caused by the authority which is not effective chalked the highest score as a major inhibitor of investment in Indonesia. This corruption led to points 13 , 8 , followed by bureaucratic inefficiency (11.1), and access to finance (9.2), including uneven infrastructure (8.8), along with unstable policies (8.6).
There are at least a number of reasons that the bureaucratic collapse has resulted in corrupt behavior being the most intense factor in inhibiting investment. Corruption is considered to create high investment costs, inefficient allocation of resources, legal uncertainty, uneven economic distribution, and unfair competition.
In addition, the World Bank’s notes on ease of doing business (Ease of Doing Business / EoDB ) also showed that Indonesia was ranked 73 in 2019, up 56 positions from 2014, which had previously perched at 129.
A similar statement was expressed by Ombudsman Commissioner Laode Ida. Which states the structural position cuts are the spirit of bureaucratic reform itself. According to him, the main principle of the most fundamental bureaucratic reform is to reduce the structure and increase the function in government institutions.
Moreover, according to him, echelon has often been used to accommodate certain interests in order to reap some money. He also said that if the administrative structure is only sufficient, while that must be multiplied is the functional position.
It’s common, investors run helter-skelter because they look at the complexity of the bureaucratic order in Indonesia. Not only overlapping rules that are considered unclear, but a number of laws are also considered to have expired authority. So it requires a lot of updates. If later the simplification of the bureaucracy is successfully implemented it is not impossible that everything related to the law or the rules will be fresher and make Indonesia easier to move forward . Including being able to boost the investment climate increasingly meningikat in the country. This means that it will also improve the national economy, which also occurs at the same time the welfare of Indonesian citizens.
) * The author is a citizen living in Tangerang