Minister of Home Affairs asks for travel to be cut, DKI DPRD admits it still needs to be cut 

JAKARTA - DKI Jakarta DPRD Chairman Khoirudin responded to the direction of the Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian who asked regional heads to carry out budget efficiency in the midst of increasing fiscal burdens. One of the highlights is the reduction of official travel or working visits (kunker).

Khoirudin admitted that discussions related to the possibility of adjusting the kunker budget would still be discussed with the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government.

However, he assessed that kunker still has an important function for members of the legislature, especially to compare policies and practices in other regions that are considered superior.

Khoirudin emphasized that study banding through kunker is still needed as a material for evaluation and improvement of policies in Jakarta.

"So the comparison of banding studies to the regions to improve Jakarta is still needed. However, because of limited finances, we will try to figure out how to make this efficient and effective," Khoirudin told reporters, Tuesday, March 31.

According to him, in some aspects, Jakarta is actually still lagging behind other areas, including cities and districts around it.

Khoirudin gave an example, the athlete training sector to the management of motor vehicle taxes are some areas that still need to be improved.

"The fact on the ground, even though Jakarta is the capital, for certain things it is still inferior to cities, even districts. For example, for the handling of athletes, we lose to Bogor, to Bekasi City. For motor vehicle taxes, we lose to Bogor," he said.

"For technical matters, we will discuss with the executives," he added.

Previously, the Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri) Tito Karnavian again asked regional heads to suppress unnecessary spending, especially official travel, so that the budget could be directed to programs that were more in favor of the community.

Tito made the statement when asked about cost-saving measures in the midst of discussing WFH policies and energy efficiency. According to Tito, the encouragement to save the budget has actually been conveyed to regional heads for a long time.

"If I have said in the past that I want regional heads to be efficient, I will emphasize efficiency again, especially budget efficiency," said Home Minister Tito Karnavian at the Presidential Palace complex, Jakarta, Wednesday, March 25.

He said that one of the posts that needed to be suppressed was a non-urgent official trip. "Especially non-essential official travel. So the money is directed to pro-people programs," he said.

Tito also opened the possibility of using mechanisms such as during the COVID-19 pandemic when the WFH scheme was re-enforced. At that time, employees were required to be absent online, turn on their mobile phones, and open GPS to actually work from home.