Supporting Bureaucratic Simplification to Realize Government Effectiveness
By: Aldia Putra) *
The bureaucratic simplification program is one of the Jokowi-Ma’ruf Government’s priority programs in its second period. Simplification of the bureaucracy is believed to be able to accelerate decision making and save budget, so that the effectiveness of government can be realized.
President Joko Widodo seems determined to simplify the bureaucracy that is packaged as bureaucratic reform. The desired bureaucracy is to serve, not be served. In his speech he once said, the government should be able to work in a simple structure so that it can run more agile.
The simple structure Jokowi wanted was also made clearer in his inaugural address on October 20. Bureaucracy must be simplified by cutting the echelon structure, from five levels to two levels. Echelon III and IV are cut, totaling 426,718.
If echelon III and IV are trimmed, the positions lost in the ministry include section heads, division heads (echelon III), and section heads and section heads (echelon IV).
President Jokowi also stressed, in the government that he runs in his second period there should not be any kind of delay. He wants acceleration in everything.
The current bureaucracy is a legacy from the New Order. The characteristics of the bureaucratic system at that time were indeed arranged through echelon channels. Where there are 5 levels of position. The highest echelon I and lowest echelon V.
Each level of echelon is determined by the size of the position allowance. Echelonization is a luxury because in addition to showing the authority of power, it also illustrates the benefits of its benefits.
We must admit that the five levels of the bureaucratic hierarchy make government performance move very slowly. I was so slow to be called a snail bureaucracy.
Where the pattern of snail bureaucratic decision making is from echelon I down to echelon II down again to echelon III, IV, then from the bottom up again. As a result, decision making becomes very slow.
Case in point, to carry out activities in the realm of electricity, there are 2000 types of permits that must be fulfilled. The new permit is completed in 2-4 years because it requires the approval of echelon layers of officials.
In addition to cutting long and complicated regulations to speed up the licensing process, he also appealed for potential investors who want to build export-oriented factories to immediately issue licenses.
Bureaucratic pruning is certainly something important, so that matters relating to correspondence including the filing of licenses can be faster and not be convoluted until it can reach four months.
Fatty and bureaucratic bureaucracies naturally tend to be wasteful and corrupt. More than that, it is precisely the obesity of a bureaucracy that can make it difficult for investment to be predicted to boost economic growth. Major plans for expansion of export performance are also hampered.
Certainly it must be firmly said that echelonization has killed the innovation and creativity of millennials who were just accepted as civil servants. There is absolutely no room in the bureaucracy that allows millennials to be creative, let alone surpass their superiors from the colonialists.
Therefore, simplification / trimming of the bureaucracy becomes a necessity if it is consistent in implementing Law Number 5 of 2014 concerning State Civil Apparatus (ASN). In it, bureaucratic echelonization is no longer used.
The ASN bureaucracy will only be grouped into 3 positions. Namely the first group of administrative positions, the second functional positions and the third position of high leadership.
Of course the elimination of echelon III and IV positions is expected to shorten the span of control. Licensing bureaucracy tables will be fewer if only one roof. Thus, certainly effectiveness and efficiency will be created in decision making.
It should also be noted that the policy of simplifying bureaucracy is not a simple thing, it needs strong supervision, considering that what will be changed is an order that has long been a part of the working procedures of bureaucracy in Indonesia
Tjahjo Kumolo as MenPan-RB said, simplifying the bureaucracy aims to improve government effectiveness and accelerate decision making.
The former Minister of the Interior (Minister of Home Affairs) explained, the acceleration of this bureaucratic simplification would go through 5 stages. First Identify administrative positions in the work unit. Second, the mapping of positions and administrative officials affected by bureaucratic simplification. Then third, the mapping of functional positions that can be occupied by officials affected by bureaucratic simplification.
Simplification of the bureaucracy is certainly expected of all Indonesian people. It not only makes performance more efficient and effective, but also speeds up business that shouldn’t take much time.
)* The author is a social political observer