If You Win The Regional Head Election, Ridwan Kamil Promises To Increase RT-RW Management Incentives In Jakarta

JAKARTA - Candidate for Governor of Jakarta, Ridwan Kamil will increase incentives for neighborhood unit (RT) and community unit (RW) administrators if elected in the 2024 Regional Head Election (Pilkada) contestation. The goal is to support the grassroots development program.

"In relation to the decentralization of the RW budget, we will increase the income of RT-RW administrators. They are the spearhead for root grass development programs, from their area arrangement, preservation of local arts and culture activities, to economic activity," said Ridwan Kamil, quoted Thursday, September 26.

Meanwhile, Ridwan Kamil-Suswono's spokesman, Juwanda, said that the step was solely to pay attention directly to grassroots. Including one of them by increasing the incentives for RT-RW administrators and a budget of Rp. 100 million to Rp. 200 million.

According to him, this program is run for equitable development in Jakarta. Of course, it involves citizen participation.

"This is a development program that is as much self-managed as possible. So residents formulate and work together and will encourage public participation. In principle, local residents know their best needs," said Juwanda.

A similar program is said to have been carried out by Ridwan Kamil while serving as Mayor of Bandung. Thus, it will be implemented again in Jakarta.

"The program that has been successfully carried out by Mr. Ridwan Kamil in Bandung. In Bandung, the name is PIPPK (Regional Development and Empowerment Innovation Program). So this is the principle that he decentralizes the budget, each RW is given the flexibility to determine directly, given what budgets need to be built in their respective regions, which is certain that each region is different," he said.

Progrants giving the budget directly to the RW level are expected to accelerate development at the grassroots level. Public participation has increased because residents are involved in conveying local issues.

"The development process below will be faster, no longer tiered. So for this there is an acceleration of development at the lower level, you don't have to wait for the mayor's or governor's decision. Every RW can determine their own priorities," said Juwanda.

Regarding concerns about budget manipulation in the implementation of the program, Juwanda emphasized that Ridwan Kamil and Suswono had thought about this. One thing that will be applied to prevent this is budget digitization.

"The key is digitization and transparency. We already have Jakarta Smart City, now it will be empowered to create a system of how, the process of submission, implementation, and the report must be digital, and transparent. If it is transparent, the opportunity for corruption is small," said Juwanda.