Raising Jakarta Civil Servants' Salaries A Time Bomb: Fitra  

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency’s (Fitra) advocacy and investigation coordinator, Apung Widadi, has called on the Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister, Yuddy Chrisnandi, to immediately issue a decree on the remuneration standards for civil servants and ratify the government regulation (PP) on civil servants’ salaries and allowances.

Apung said the decree and the PP were necessary to avert gaps in salaries among civil servants across the nation.

Apung said the governments of remote areas spent almost 40-50 percent of their budgets on civil servants’ salaries, whereas they were still grappling with infrastructure issues.

“The increase in Jakarta’s civil servants’ allowances is like a time bomb, because those in other regions could ask for a raise as well,” he said in Jakarta on Thursday, February 5, 2015.

Earlier, Yuddy said he was throwing his weight behind Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama’s plans to increase the performance allowances of Jakarta civil servants. Apung said there had been no clear regulations yet on the remuneration standards for civil servants.

Apung suggested the minister raise civil servants’ salaries gradually. “It would be better if the raise were given gradually, perhaps 50 percent for the first stage,” he said. 

GANGSAR PARIKESIT