Best Paper: Regional Innovation Arising from Transparency

Minister of National Development Planning / Head of Bappenas Bambang Brodjonegoro presented the Best Paper award to Adyawarman Ministry of Finance staff at the Indonesia Development Forum 2018

The implementation of regional autonomy in Indonesia has resulted in different achievements at the regional level. Many regions have implemented service innovations and  good public management practices (Bunnel, et al., 2013), but some have poor performance and governance (Rosser, et al., 2011). This shows that public innovation is an opportunity as well as a challenge for local governments when facing complex situations such as financial constraints, legitimacy deficits and the issue of "wicked problems" which bring potential social conflicts, including inequality and poverty.

Overcoming this dilemma, the Government has issued Government Regulation  No. 38 of 2017 concerning Regional Innovation as derivate to Law No. 23 of 2014 concerning Regional Government. This regulation aims to encourage regions to further develop innovation and provide legal certainty in the event of failure. In short, new ideas and innovations can be proposed by various actors, including regional heads, bureaucrats, DPRD members, private parties, NGO activists and the community. After considering its feasibility, the local government proposed the idea to the local parliament to discuss the implementation of the regulation in the Regional Regulation, including the provision of funds and its accountability mechanism.

Various success stories show that the spirit of regional autonomy and bureaucratic reform have encouraged many local leaders to implement basic service innovations (such as affordable health and  education programs) and integrated services (one stop service) for obtaining personal documents as well as licenses and permits. Although service and administrative and technology process innovations play an important role, they are not sufficient to guarantee economic development and inclusive public services. Therefore a new mechanism is needed that prioritizes the involvement of the community in the policy-making process, which is known as governance innovation.

Collaboration between government and civil society plays an important role in gathering additional resources and translating fresh ideas from the grassroots. As a result, policies become more down to earth, ensuring access, and equal distribution of the benefits from public services. In addition, collaboration with the community will minimize resistance and increase public trust and ownership  toward  policy initiatives. In short, collaboration will improve goal achievement and reduce costs (achieve more with less) which is the basic principle of innovation.

A staff to the Ministry of State Secretariat, Adyawarman looked into the collaboration between the local government and the community through a public complaint handling case study (UPKP2) and organized a Budget Exhibition in Batang District. With a paper entitled Seeking Governance Innovations in a Decentralized Indonesia: The Case of the Public Complaint Handling and Budget Festival in Batang Regency, a doctoral candidate for public policy from the University of Canberra Australia won the Best Paper in the Indonesia Development Forum 2018.

Creating a Transparent Bureaucracy

Intensive communication between  Regent Yoyok Riyo and Deputy Regent Sutadi (2012-2017) with civil society activists even prior to the commencement of their term, has provided local NGO activists - those from Omah Tani, Lakpesdam NU, Laskar Batang, Omah Rakyat, Pekka - with good access to  contribute to policy making and help develop policies which are more progressive, more responsive, as well as  more transparent. NGO activists have declared support to anti-corruption programs and improvement of public services under the Regent’s very own motto "Clean Bureaucracy, Risen Economy". Their spirit is very much motivated by own commitment, without any hidden interest or a wish for material compensation or reward.

As newly elected regent,  Yoyok realized that Batang’s limited budget and prevalence of corruption constituted the main cause of the regency’s poor public service delivery and a barrier to the local development. He then stepped forward, taking corrective and improvement measures.

The first step was to launch an anti-corruption zone to ensure that every budget allocation was properly spent, with no room formark-ups, bribes and kick-backs. He also distributed a circular on-gratification, instructing every single one in his administration to reject all requests for assistance made and put forward in his name or the name of his family members or his requests that were in his name, his family and his success team. In addition, all regional officials were also asked to sign an integrity pact stating that  they would reject and object to any corrupt practices, including gratification rewarded by contractors who won tenders through  e-procurement system.

On the other hand, Yoyok formed a Public Service Performance Improvement Unit (UPKP2) under Regent Regulation Number 90/2012. The Unit was managed by members coming from various backgrounds:  community members, professionals and bureaucrats. This unit is a real form of collaboration established to provide people with a channel through which they can submit complaints about the quality of public services, thus contributing to the strenghtening of supervisory work that will promote the delivery of excellent services.

UPKP2 plays a role as a community facilitator to help them get public services in a practical, transparent  and non discriminatory manner. UPKP2 also established equal relations and partnerships with offices and agencies that provide public services. Quite often, UPKP2 helped  disseminate information and educate people on the procedures and service standards that apply to the delivery of public services. UPKP2 also provided assistance to the reported agencies so that they would not be intimidated by a third party that would try to use the situation to illegally obtain benefits for their own interests, for example through extortion.

Meanwhile, the Budget Exhibition which started in 2014 produced brilliant results. This activity was the first of its kind, not only in the District, but also in Indonesia. It was designed and implemented together with various community components in Batang.

Through this activity, the community was given the opportunity to study, monitor and ask questions about the regional budget allocation, as well as detailed information on the focus, locus and beneficiaries of each program. Each local agency office in Batang presented information about their programs and budgets in the current year, as well as the achievements from the previous year, including explanation of program activities that were not achieved. The operational budget of the Regent and Deputy Regent, including the amount of salaries and allowances of the Regional Head was also opened to public.

This Budget Exhibition Initiative increased the popularity of Batang from a less nationally known area to an area that received various awards and recognition from the central government, other regional governments, and civil society. This achievement convinced the anti-corruption NGO consortium to award Bung Hatta Anti-Corruption Award to Regent Yoyok in 2015. Likewise, the Minister of State Apparatus and Bureaucracy Reform presented the Public Service Innovator Award to Batang Regency in 2016.

The case in Batang shows that transparent and effective use the budget has resulted in efficiency and increase in the region’s Own Source Revenue, improvement in the spatial and regional planning, for examples the space for alun-alun  (squares) both at the Regency and Sub Regency levels,  and  revitalization of the traditional markets. Batang should be an example for other regions related to public services.

Finally, the involvement of civil society in the development process in Indonesia is actually not something new. Local wisdom owned by all regions is a great potential for developing public social partnerships in improving public service delivery and developing basic infrastructure. In addition, the increasing participation and concern of the private sector in public private social partnership (such as CSR) schemes can be directed to improve the implementation of inclusive development programs. **