Basuki Demotes 57 Civil Servants for Poor Performance

Jakarta Globe, Lenny Tristia Tambun, May 18, 2015

Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama has demoted dozens of
bureaucrats for not performing. (GA Photo/Mohammad Defrizal)

Jakarta. Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama has demoted dozens of top Jakarta bureaucrats for failing to perform in their jobs.

A total of 57 officials in echelon 3 and 4 positions have been downgraded to regular staff, the outspoken city leader announced on Monday.

“There are many people down in the hierarchy who wish to go up,” Basuki said. “We want to have competition in governing the city.”

Agus Suradika, chief of Jakarta’s civil service bureau, said most of the demoted civil servants came from the Jakarta Development Planning Agency (Bappeda) and the city’s urban planning office.

The bureaucrats will have a chance to redeem themselves if they show “progress” during an appraisal in three months’ time, Agus said.

“If they don’t get better, we will cut their performance allowance,” Agus said. “They will only receive a basic salary.”

Basuki introduced quarterly performance-based bonuses for civil servants in February, as part of City Hall’s wider push to incentivize bureaucrats to improve their services to the public.

Basuki has made no bones about his displeasure with poorly performing and lazy city bureaucrats, and has repeatedly expressed his intention to recruit more professionals into his team.

The governor on Monday also promoted 196 officials who will now assume high-ranking posts while 452 others are transferred to other similar ranking positions.

“To be honest I would rather fire as many public officials as possible. We are overstaffed and thus not running efficiently. So maybe one day you too will be [downgraded to] regular staffers if you are not diligent, if you don’t raise the bar,” he said to those receiving their promotions.

Basuki said he would continue to solicit input from the lower ranking officials. “So many staffers reported that ‘my boss can’t even use a typewriter.’ Some also say ‘[my boss] only polishes his gemstones all day,’ ” he said.

The governor said he had tried to verify this by assessing their superiors’ performances.

“I asked them, why aren’t you performing well. I got many excuses. [They say] our staff is incompetent. So we let them choose their subordinates,” he said.

“But we will evaluate again in six months. If the evaluation [results] are still appalling then there’s something wrong with the superiors. Then I will be left with no choice but to downgrade them again.”

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