TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President-elect Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said he was scrutinizing around 100 ministerial candidates for his future administration and had hired a head-hunter agency to help him examine the names.

“This head-hunter agency has already given its input to us regarding the names. There are hundreds of them and we need a cutback,” he said at the City Hall on Thursday, August 21, 2014. He added he would return the names to the agency for another review after he finished selecting them.

Jokowi said the input provided by the agency included names, education backgrounds, employment history, track records and photos. “I’m looking at them one by one, we can see the records there, where they graduated from, their track records and whether they have managerial aptitude,” he said.

The Jakarta governor explained the candidates hailed from multiple backgrounds, from academicians and practitioners to politicians. Jokowi, however, balked at revealing those on his head-hunter team and only mentioned that the agency was a private foundation. “A private [foundation], I won’t disclose it,” he said.

The president-elect said the criteria he adopted in selecting the candidates encompassed robust integrity, sound managerial skills, strong and clean leadership, and exceptional track records. He added the names would be canvassed in September and that his transition team would not be involved in the selection process.

ANANDA TERESIA | FATIMAH KARTINI BOHANG