High-Tech Den Will Keep SBY on Top of the Situation

Jakarta Globe, July 13, 2010, Camelia Pasandaran & Markus Junianto Sihaloho

Determined to keep abreast of affairs throughout the country, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyon has installed a 'situation room' at the Presidential Palace. (Antara Photo/Widodo S. Jusuf)

Just days after an assessment showing that about a quarter of his ministers have missed their performance targets, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday launched a “situation room” to keep an even closer eye on their work.

“I often tell you that running the government in our country should be based on a credible system and management,” Yudhoyono said during a test run of the Rp 8 billion [$880,000] “situation room” at the Presidential Palace.

The room features several big screens that can display the progress of government programs using the Geographic Information System and a real-time map.

Yudhoyono said that the facilities would help the government monitor and speed up its priority programs. They would also help leaders address problem quickly by providing continuous, updated monitoring.

“A decision maker should be able to make decisions day or night, whether at the location or during local or foreign trips,” Yudhoyono said. “A president will be able to make decisions while traveling here or in foreign countries.

“The wheels of the government should not stop moving due to the location of the president, vice president, ministers, governors or district heads.”

Yudhoyono asked Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, head of the Presidential Working Unit for Development Supervision and Control (UKP4), to record details of certain issues to serve as the basis for government policies and programs.

He said all government officials must truly report what happens in the field.

“We have to convince all regional and district officials that what they report to the president is truly what has been implemented in the field,” Yudhoyono said, adding that the system would show any discrepancy.

“In here, we need good government ethics, accountability for what has been carried out by all of us,” he said.

He also wanted cabinet members to monitor their own areas of responsibility.

In other news, a senior Golkar Party official said the president should use the poor results of the recent six-month evaluation of cabinet members as a basis for reshuffling the body.

Priyo Budi Santoso, Golkar’s leader in the House of Representatives, said Yudhoyono should not hesitate to rearrange his cabinet.

“If the performance is really bad, then the president has to follow it up,” he said. “A reshuffle could be done without having to give much consideration to its political effect.”

The evaluation focused on 14 criteria, including bureaucratic reform, good governance, poverty alleviation, food security, infrastructure, the business and investment climate, energy and the environment.

The secretary general of the National Mandate Party (PAN), Taufik Kurniawan, said the results of the evaluation should have no bearing on possibly reconstituting the cabinet, and called on the UKP4 to explain its findings and the methods used.

“If the red marks were due to not fulfilling the president’s targets or an inability to communicate with the House in the best way, then it should not be a problem,” he said.

“But if the red marks were the result of a minister’s inability to implement the government’s programs because there was no funding for them, then the evaluation is too subjective.”

Taufik added that the evaluation should not be politicized by parties for their own interest.

“Let’s remember that reshuffling is the president’s prerogative,” he said.

Kuntoro did not provide detailed information about the evaluation but revealed that Minister of Communications and Information Technology Tifatul Sembiring, Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar and Minister of Public Works Joko Kirmanto were among those receiving a failing grade.

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