Aspiration Social Audit Results: Pj Governor Must Involve Community in Development

In an effort to maintain transparency and accountability in governance, the Civil Society Alliance for Transparency, Inclusion and Democracy (Aspirasi) monitors the performance of acting governors in 25 provinces. The social audit monitoring is motivated by the non-transparent and non-participatory appointment of acting governors, which may reduce their accountability to the public.

Aspirasi focuses the social audit on issues of public policy, infrastructure, public services, and the involvement of marginalized groups in the regional development process. Aspirasi noted that in the policy planning process, marginalized groups such as indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, and women victims of violence are still considered by local governments as objects of policy, not as subjects. In addition, policy implementation in many provinces is also still constrained by the commitment of local governments and the lack of perspectives of marginalized groups.

“Marginalized groups are still considered as beneficiaries, not fully actively involved in the development planning process,” said Perludem Researcher Heroik Pratama in the Cikini area, Central Jakarta (29/4).

Although in general the policy implementation is in accordance with the planning and budget documents with budget realization reaching almost 90% in many regions, the policy implementation has not been able to solve the problems of marginalized groups. Another note, the budget allocation for financing programs that have a direct impact is still considered minimal, because the budget allocation is mostly used for program preparation needs such as official travel and administrative expenditures.

Aspiration’s monitoring findings, in addition to the lack of budget, the lack of public involvement has an impact on the failure of program implementation and meeting the needs of marginalized groups. This can be seen in utilizing technology for public services, which is not directly aimed at serving the issues of marginalized groups, but only related to public services.

“Our findings, in some areas the technology used such as applications and official websites have provided convenience for people with disabilities, especially visual disabilities,” said Heroik.

Meanwhile, according to the Program Manager of Transparency International Indonesia (TII), Alvin Nicola, monitoring the acting governor is important because there are many conflicts of interest in the appointment process. Based on the assessment through the Governor Performance Scorecard (GPS) measuring tool to explore the experience of vulnerable groups in planning, organizing public services, and monitoring local government policies. According to him, the acting governor has a tendency to be one-sided, supporting the central government’s policy agendas more than the needs of the community.

“We also see from the three clusters that we measure (planning and budgeting, public services, and supervision), almost all of them are in the troubling category,” said Alvin Nicola.

Alvin assessed that the lack of performance of the acting governor has implications for the increasing difficulty of vulnerable groups to access their basic rights as citizens and has the potential to exacerbate stigmatization, discrimination and violence. For this reason, collective supervisory work is needed between regional legislative institutions, internal and external government oversight bodies, and civil society.

“This is to prevent more inappropriate policies, budget inefficiencies and encourage the fulfillment of people’s basic rights, especially for vulnerable groups,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Committee for Monitoring the Implementation of Regional Autonomy (KPPOD) emphasized the need to review the concept and limits of neutrality of the State Civil Apparatus (ASN) and the involvement of all stakeholders to oversee the performance of the acting governor. This is important because the acting regional head must have qualified capacity and ability, especially since the design of the regional government bureaucracy is not good enough.

“We see that this regional government bureaucracy can be used for certain interests,” said KPPOD Executive Director Herman N Suparman.

Herman assessed that currently the acting regional heads are still trapped in the structural challenges of implementing decantralization and regional autonomy, including fiscal, economic, administrative and political governance. According to Herman, this unhealthy structure has an impact on the neutrality of regional heads and policy implementation.

Based on the findings of the State Civil Apparatus Commission (KASN) in December 2023, out of 101 acting regional heads, only 31 people implemented the ASN neutrality regulations, while the remaining 70 acting regional heads did not comply with the ASN neutrality provisions. In the same month, the Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri) noted that 59 regional heads received a red report card in the indicator of maintaining ASN neutrality in the 2024 elections.

“So it is necessary to re-discuss the ASN neutrality policy in political activities,” he said.

In addition, the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) also emphasized the importance of the role of the media in overseeing the neutrality of officials in the 2024 regional head elections, especially the impact on minority groups. Because according to AJI, press freedom depends on the quality of elections held, both of which also determine the quality of the bureaucracy.

“Journalists must monitor the neutrality of officials in the elections, this must be a joint monitoring of the social assistance budget,” said AJI Secretary General Ika Ningtyas.

Based on its findings, the Aspiration Alliance asked the acting governor to encourage more meaningful community involvement, especially for vulnerable groups and to develop service standards that prioritize the needs of vulnerable groups. Aspirasi also asked the DPRD to actively carry out its supervisory function, and demanded the nomination of acting candidates in a transparent, accountable, and participatory process in accordance with the mandate of the Public Information Disclosure Law (KIP).

For information, the Aspiration Alliance consists of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), Transparency International Indonesia (TII), the Committee for Monitoring the Implementation of Regional Autonomy (KPPOD), the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and the SETARA Institute. []