Yuddy Chrisnandi: I Am The Extended Hand Of The President

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Yuddy Chrisnandi wants to make the State Apparatus and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry an example on how ministries and other government agencies should run their offices. In addition, any negative image challenges him to do some more fixing inside his ministry.

He has also placed his ministry as an extended hand of the president, who is the final arbiter in the nation. He makes sure that filling positions must involve the ministries. "We must continue to work on the process so that it can be free of political intervention and money politics," said Yuddy.

On reports that he has done something to his cases seems irrelevant. He is convinced of having to do some 'cleansing' which would make the public very unhappy. "In fact, here I am newly appointed and someone has tried to give me billions of rupiah," said Yuddy, adding that, "the objective is to be able to play around with me."

When Yuddy visited the Tempo office recently, he tried to explain the restructuring that's taken most of his time and his reason for adding 24 expert staff from different party backgrounds.

What have you done so far to reorganize the ministries and state institutions?

The structure of ministries will not change much, but we ask that there be some re-ordering. We had done audits on the different organizations. For instance, the State Employees Board was run by an acting deputy chief. We erased that position. The State Apparatus Ministry used to have many expert staff. Now there's only four. We used to have seven deputies, now there are only four.

So why do you need 24 people working for you as expert staff?

It's permitted to have that many, so long as it's no burden to the state treasury. They are people dedicated to working in the process of bureaucratic reform in Indonesia.

Are the ministries' staff not good enough?

For me, they are good enough. Look, we finally hired a deputy so I can start working finally. But I don't come from one basket. There are many baskets, where I come from. If anyone wants to contribute should I refuse it? For example, I know a CEO who makes a salary of Rp50 million, but he only wants legitimacy by doing oversight, so, yet, of course I accepted. The important thing is that it doesn't use state money, state facilities, and the state does not incur losses. Among them are doctors, former bureaucrats, former bank directors, who want to help me. Should I reject them? No, except if I include a budget nomenclature and use state money. So then I would violate it.

Are they paid with state money?

No. They'e paid with private money.

You're using your own money to pay them?

Yes. It's nothing to me. For them, the money doesn't mean a thing. They come to meetings and get Rp1 million, while the professional consultant can get Rp25 million a month.

There seems to be a contradiction between your bureaucratic reforms and hiring 24 experts.

You should straighten out your way of thinking. In bureaucratic reform, what needs to be trimmed is the structure. The consequence is savings in the budget and on government facilities. If I had 1,000 people but it didn't affect the structure of the organization and didn't bother the state funds, where would be the mistake? These people contribute to the government, they give feedback and recommendations, concepts and viewpoints, which help me map out issues. They provide information on the areas I work on. Where's the mistake in that? I can always form my own office. I could even build my own building as long as I don't use the state budget and facilities.

How do you control them, some of them may be wild cards?

Show me their mistake, tell me their names. If they create losses, that's easy, I'll just fire them. I've already done that to one of them, who I heard had gathered people and tried to offer them favors. I stopped him.

We have proof you wrote to the maritime affairs and fisheries minister, recommending an official in that ministry for a certain position.

I forget the details of the letter, but I'm sure it wasn't for a high position. The way I see it, if someone comes to me, who has worked for a long time as a civil servant and his progress is complicated by a ministry, I would recommend him, yes. Nothing wrong with that. Every minister does that. But the letter of recommendation I made did not require the person to get a job. I guarantee you, that the letter is just to get attention. (*)

Read the full interview in this week's edition of Tempo English Magazine