Anies Appoints More TGUPP Members to Transparency Program

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has appointed seven new members of the Governor’s Team for Accelerated Development (TGUPP), who will be working in the regulation harmonization committee, amid mounting criti­cism over the lack of transparen­cy in the recruitment process.

The team will be led by prom­inent lawyer Rikrik Rizkiyana, who was previously a member of Anies’ synchronization team.

Listed as a member is the for­mer Home Ministry director gen­eral of regional autonomy, Djoher- mansyah Djohan, who is currently a professor at the Institute of Pub­lic Administration (IPDN).

Former head of Jakarta’s legal bureau Sri Rayahu, law experts from the University of Indone­sia Fitriani A Syarief and Mustafa Fakhri, civil and international law expert Aria Suyudi and adminis­trative law expert Bani Pamungkas have been appointed as members.

City, secretary Saefullah said Thursday that the city administra­tion had issued an official statement on the appointment of those mem­bers. Saefullah said the committee would support the city’s legal bu­reau duty, not take over its job.

“The duty of the committee is to support the city’s legal bureau. The jobs of the two bodies won’t overlap,” he said at City Hall.

Djohermansyah told The Ja­karta Post on Friday that the team members would hold a meet­ing to talk about their duties on Wednesday.

The team would in principle work to ensure that any legal products issued by the Jakarta ad­ministration were synchronized with the other laws and regula­tions, he said.

“The committee will be in charge of carrying out an ‘execu­tive preview’ before a legal draft is deliberated. It will synchro­nize and harmonize legal drafts so there won’t be any disputes arising from regulations in the fu­ture,” Djohermansyah said.

Citing his experience as direc­tor general of regional autonomy, Djohermansyah said there were thousands of troublesome regu­lations made by regional leaders.

In Jakarta, for instance, there was a motorcycle ban policy that violated at least,three regulations, causing it to be reviewed and re­voked by the Supreme Court last November, he said.

Therefore, the team would as­sist the governor in formulating good regulations, he added.

Djohermansyah said he joined the team after Anies had ap­proached him over a period of about three weeks, indicating there was no recruitment process for the team.

“I was asked to join the team given my expertise and around 40 years of experience‘in the govern­ment, including in the field of re­gional autonomy,” he said.

He went on to say the members would not work exclusively for the administration, as they were still allowed to do their main job.

Robert Endi Jaweng, executive director of the Regional Autono­my Watch (KPPOD), criticized the absence of a recruitment process, as TGUPP members would receive a salary from the city’s budget.

As expenditure for TGUPP members was listed in the Jakar­ta Regional Development Board’s (Bappeda) budget post, Anies should have recruited the mem­bers through the process stipu­lated in Presidential Regulation No. 4/2015 on the procurement of goods and services in the admin­istration, he said.

“Should Bappeda want to pay a salary to non-civil servants, it should go through a recruitment process. Anies now acts as if he will pay TGUPP members with his operational money, when in fact he is using the city budget,” Robert said. He added that even though the committee consisted of prominent figures, it should work in accordance with the guidelines stipulated in the pre­vailing regulations about TGUPP.

He added that the committee should prioritize finding regula­tions that hinder the growth of in­vestment in the capital, given the administration’s target to jump to 40th place in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EODB) index in 2018 from 72^nd position currently.

--- (The Jakarta Post – Saturday, January 13, 2018) ---