Jakarta, NU Online – Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has inaugurated 109 ministers and deputy ministers in the Red and White Cabinet. This relatively fat cabinet is considered to have the potential to hinder the implementation of the president's Asta Cita program, and can cause waste of the state budget.
Public Policy Observer Ah Maftuchan assessed that the fat Prabowo-Gibran cabinet could affect the cabinet arrangement. The President and coordinating ministers need to adopt an effective orchestration approach in terms of coordination, supervision, and synchronization between ministries and institutions.
"If President Prabowo and the coordinating ministers are unable to carry out effective and efficient coordination, supervision, and synchronization, it will result in overlapping inter-agency ministerial programs," Maftuchan told NU Online, Thursday (24/10/2024).
Maftuchan added that the fatness of this cabinet will also cause an increase in the budget for spending on officials and employees in new ministries or ministries that are split. In the future, according to him, there must be government efforts to increase state revenues. Without a significant increase in state revenues, then of course a fat cabinet will burden the state budget.
"The budget that should be prioritized for implementing programs that have a direct impact on the community and improving community welfare will be reduced because there is an increase in the budget allocation for employee and official spending in new ministries/institutions," said Maftuchan, Director of The PRAKARSA, a policy research and advocacy institute.
Maftuchan encouraged the Prabowo government to implement a mechanism and institution that plays a role, functions to monitor and evaluate program activities run by ministries, institutions and local governments. This monitoring and evaluation function, according to him, can be played by the coordinating ministry to strengthen inter-ministerial orchestration.
Read more here: nu.or.id