Indonesia pushing through defense reforms

Tom Abke

Seeking to boost efficiency while deterring corruption, Indonesia’s Ministry of Defence (Kemhan) has embarked upon the “Bureaucratic Reform Road Map for 2020-2024” in concert with a larger reform effort across the Indonesian government.

To achieve its goals, Kemhan is implementing the Government Agency Performance Accountability System (SAKIP), Air Marshal Donny Ermawan Taufanto, secretary general of the Indonesian Ministry of Defence, said in September 2020.

SAKIP seeks to create a “lean, agile, integrated and electronic-based institutional management of the bureaucracy” through annual evaluations of government organizations, according to Indonesia’s Ministry of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform (Menpan).

Kemhan’s most recent SAKIP evaluation showed improvements between 2018 and 2019 in effectiveness and efficiency in budget use, Donny said. “Efficiency should start with improving the pattern of budget utilization from the first time the bureaucracy plans its results or performance, as is the principle of results-oriented accountability,” he said.

Kemhan received a B grade for its overall performance on SAKIP implementation, indicating room for improvement in budget efficiency. (Pictured: Indonesian defense officials discuss reform efforts in September 2020.)

“This road map becomes a guideline for all program officers and unit chiefs in implementing the Ministry of Defence’s bureaucratic reform program,” Donny said, adding that efficiency must be built systemically and not through temporary policies, such as modifying spending in the middle of a budget year.

Going digital is a big part of the reform movement in Indonesia, a team of researchers wrote in a November 2019 article for the International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering. Faced with a ranking of 77 out of 119 countries in the Global Talent Competitiveness Index, the Indonesian government, through Menpan, ordered all state entities to adopt information technology to improve performance. By implementing a digital system at the recruitment stage, the government also hopes to deter corruption, the authors wrote.

“The existence of digital transformation is expected to narrow the opportunities for corruption,” stated an October 8, 2020, Menpan news release.

Kemhan is fully onboard with the reform effort. “We are implementing all forms of bureaucratic reform to maintain and even improve the results of the performance appraisal,” Donny said.

Tom Abke is a FORUM contributor reporting from Singapore.