The Proposal For Additional Police Budget Is Not In Line With The Spirit Of Efficiency

The National Police's humanoid robot is shown in the dirty rehearsal at the peak of the celebration of the 79th Bhayangkara Day in the Monas area, Central Jakarta, Friday (27/6/2025). (ANTARA/HO-Directorate of Public Relations of the Police)

JAKARTA The police observer questioned the proposal to add the National Police budget for next year because it was considered contrary to the spirit of efficiency echoed by the government.

The National Police has proposed an additional budget of IDR 63.7 trillion for the budget ceiling in 2026. The application was submitted by the National Police in a working meeting with the DPR through Commission III in charge of law at the Senayan complex, Monday (7/7/2025).

Assistant to the Chief of Police for Planning and Budget (Astamarena) Police Commissioner General Wahyu Hadiningrat said his proposed budget requirement for 2026 reached R173 trillion, based on the National Police Chief's letter dated March 10, 2025.

However, the ceiling set by the government is IDR 109.6 trillion. Thus, there is a shortage of budget needs of IDR 53.7 trillion.

Komjen Pol. Wahyu detailed that the additional budget proposed by the institution was IDR 4.8 trillion for the needs of personnel spending. Then, his party budgeted for goods expenditures of IDR 13.8 trillion, as well as capital expenditures of IDR 45.1 trillion.

Commission III of the Indonesian House of Representatives stated that it "received and approved the explanation" of the National Police and "will fight for additional proposals submitted amounting to Rp63.7 trillion, bringing it to Rp173.4 trillion," said Deputy Chairman of Commission III of the Indonesian House of Representatives Sari Yuliati as reported by Antara.

This additional budget proposal was criticized by a number of observers to Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW). ICW opposes the DPR's decision to approve to increase the National Police budget by Rp. 63.7 trillion.

ICW rejected the DPR's decision for several reasons, first, the DPR did not have clear and informative justification regarding its decision to increase the budget amidst the poor performance of the Police.

ICW said the demand for an increase in the National Police budget for 2026 overall includes personnel expenditures of IDR 64.9 trillion (up IDR 5.5 trillion or 9.32 percent), goods expenditures of IDR 47.6 trillion (up IDR 13.5 trillion or 39.74 percent), capital expenditures of IDR 60.8 trillion (up IDR 27.7 trillion or 83.89 percent).

ICW researcher Wana Alamsyah highlighted the significant increase in budget for goods and capital expenditures, which are vulnerable sectors for corrupt practices.

"It should be noted that goods and capital expenditures are included in the procurement mechanism. Meanwhile, based on the results of ICW monitoring, the procurement of goods and services is a sector that is prone to corruption," said Wana, in a statement received by VOI.

The National Police, said Wana, has never been obedient to provide information related to the Police Performance Report every year and information related to procurement in accordance with Information Commission Regulation Number 1 of 2021 concerning Public Information Service Standards.

"With the large budget for procurement and the lack of transparency and accountability, the potential for corruption will be even greater," he continued.

To note, the National Police is the state institution with the second largest budget after the Ministry of Defense for 2025.

The National Police initially received a budget of IDR 126 trillion, but even though it was exposed to 16 percent efficiency, it still received a budget of IDR 106 trillion. This figure ranks third after his position was replaced by the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) which implemented the Free Nutrition Food (MBG) program.

Meanwhile, police observer from the Institute for Security and Strategic Studies (ISESS) Bambang Rukminto also questioned the spike in the Police budget. According to him, this is contrary to the spirit of efficiency echoed by President Prabowo Subianto's government.

At the beginning of the year, the National Police was among those affected by budget cuts from IDR 126.1 trillion to IDR 106.1 trillion as part of efficiency measures.

"So if you ask for an additional IDR 63.7 trillion now, where is the efficiency? Instead of doing this efficiency, it actually increased the budget from the original IDR 126.1 trillion to IDR 164.8 trillion, it increased very significantly by almost 30 percent," said Bambang.

Bambang also questioned the proposed budget allocation, whether for operational expenditures such as salary and education or actually for less urgent capital expenditures. He even suspected that this additional budget was to buy humanoid robots exhibited by Bhayangkara's anniversary some time ago.

Not only that, Bambang also highlighted the lack of transparency and accountability in the use of the budget by the Police. Moreover, the DPR as an institution tasked with carrying out its control function tends to be silent.

"That's why this needs to be questioned, maybe there will be players between the DPR and the National Police so that the DPR closes its eyes with the budget that has been used by the Police or the increase, even then the very significant increase in the budget is also a form of flirtation between the DPR and the National Police in the midst of the efficiency conveyed by the government. the increase is certainly a waste," he said.

Meanwhile, ICW suspects that the increase in the budget for capital expenditures of around 83 percent will be used to carry out the construction of a Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit related to MBG in each Regional Police.

"This is reinforced by the acceleration of the construction of SPPG throughout the Regional Police to pursue the target of 200 buildings by the end of 2025 which was conveyed by the National Police Chief during a speech on Bhayangkara Day last July 1," said Bambang again.