Prabowo Orders Cabinet Staff To Save, Emphasizes Budget Only For Productive Affairs

JAKARTA - President Prabowo Subianto demanded that cabinet officials be frugal in using the state budget. He emphasized that the state budget is only used for productive affairs.

In his directive delivered during the Plenary Cabinet Session, the President also reminded his staff that he directly supervised the use of the APBN carefully.

I am constantly monitoring. I constantly demand savings, efficiency. I demand the courage to cut things that are not essential," the President told the ranks of ministers, deputy ministers, and heads of institutions during the Plenary Cabinet Session at the Presidential Office, Presidential Palace Complex, Jakarta, Wednesday, January 22, which was confiscated by Antara.

The President then explained four criteria for using the productive APBN.

As for the first criteria, the APBN used by ministries/agencies must be able to create jobs. Furthermore, the second criteria, the APBN used must be productive, and that must be measured.

"This productivity must be measured by quantification. How many foreign exchanges are generated, how many foreign exchanges are saved," continued the President.

The third criteria, the state budget used must lead to food and energy self-sufficiency goals.

"This means that we must be able to feed all Indonesian people. No longer imports, and I thank the ranks of ministers who have reported to me," Prabowo said.

The fourth criterion, the President continued, is that the APBN used must create technological breakthroughs.

"It means that investment spending on human resources, for education, for science and technology is something vital, and something we have to run," said the President.

In order to make this happen, the President asked the ranks of ministers, deputy ministers, and heads of institutions to be loyal.

"I am very serious in this matter. I ask for the loyalty of all ministers, all heads of agencies to comply with this, and I thank the financial team for combing through and reviewing the budget in detail," said the President.

On the same occasion, the President also emphasized that he directly checked the use of the ministry/institution budget in detail.

Thus, the budgets allocated for unproductive activities will be in the spotlight

"Maybe the first time in history, the President of the Republic of Indonesia checked up to the ninth unit. So, you may not know the budgets, because we have been Indonesians for a long time," continued the President.

The Plenary Cabinet session took place at around 15.00 WIB at the Presidential Office, Presidential Palace Complex, Jakarta. During the event, the President chaired the session accompanied by Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka.

In the courtroom, most of the ministers and deputy ministers of the Red and White Cabinet were present, there were also Attorney General S.T. Burhanuddin, National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, Head of BIN M. Herindra, and Army Chief of Staff General Maruli Simanjuntak who were present representing the TNI Commander General Agus Subiyanto.

The President started the trial by praising the performance of his staff, then continued with directions for the work of the government in the future.