Discourse On Adding Ministries And Institutions Not Only Adding Budget Burden, It Also Makes It Complicated

Traders peddle a photo of Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka as President and Vice President 2024-2029 in the Pasar Baru area, Jakarta, Tuesday (23/4/2024). (ANTARA/Muhammad Adimaja)

The Prabowo Subianto-Gibran Rakabuming Raka government received the green light to increase the number of Ministries and institutions after the DPR officially ratified the revision of the State Ministry Law at the Plenary Meeting last week.

One of the clauses that have been changed is the number of ministries that can be formed by the next president. In Law Number 39 of 2008 concerning the Ministry of State, it was previously regulated that the president could form a maximum ministry of 34. This provision is regulated in Article 15 of the regulation. Meanwhile, in the new regulation, Article 15 no longer limits the president in forming the ministries needed to administer the government.

With these changes, the elected president Prabowo Subianto has the flexibility to increase the number of ministries according to his wishes.

Shortly after being declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election, it was reported that Prabowo Subianto would increase the number of ministries from 34 to 41. Later, the number was said to have increased again to 44.

Chairman of the MPR and Golkar politician Bambang Soesatyo admitted that he had heard a conversation about this. In fact, PAN is said to be rationing five of the 44 ministerial seats.

The discourse on adding ministries or institutions as Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka was inaugurated on October 20, giving rise to pros and cons. From the perspectives of political observers, this plan is referred to as a place for distributing cakes or 'coal politics' from the elected president, as revealed by Aisah Putri Budiarti, a researcher at the Political Research Center of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN).

He smelled that there was an interest in forming a fat cabinet so that Prabowo could accommodate supporting parties and volunteers who had helped him win the election. Moreover, the discourse on increasing the number of ministries also coincided with the increasing number of political parties that were close to Prabowo.

The plan to increase the ministry that was detected was the Ministry of Housing, which was leaked by the Deputy Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Kartika Wirjoatmodjo. That way, the housing sector that is now a member of the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) will be separated as before.

Prabowo is also said to be adding three bodies after the National Nutrition Agency was formed at the end of President Jokowi's era. After the National Nutrition Agency, Prabowo said he would form a Climate Change Control and Carbon Administration (BP3I-TNK).

Then the State Revenue Agency (BPN), one of the ministries-level agencies, is expected to boost state tax and non-tax revenues. The presence of BPN is expected to increase the ratio of state revenues to gross domestic product (GDP) by 23 percent.

"Currently, the receipt and expenditure is still in one ministry, namely the Ministry of Finance. The fiscal policy is entirely there," said Kamhar Lakumani, a Democrat Party politician who is a member of the Advanced Indonesia Coalition (KIM) Plus.

This is what is important to carry out structural transformation. There is for example a State Revenue Agency so that it can be more optimal in photographing and visualizing all potential state revenues.

Meanwhile, another agency was leaked by the Expert Council of the National Campaign Team (TKN) Ferry Latuhihin, a possibility dealing with Bulog or food.

Director of the Digital Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS) Nailul Huda said the addition of ministries and institutions to accommodate programs that have been planned is not a problem, as long as they do not interfere with the main tasks and functions or duties of the existing ministry. However, he did not deny that this will definitely increase the burden on the state budget, which according to him is used more for non-productive spending.

"This is indeed the prerogative of the president, but it must be studied more deeply, whether it causes inefficiency in coordination and so on," Huda told VOI.

"What must be done is to review whether a new agency or ministry is needed when existing is sufficient," he added.

According to Huda, the previous number of ministries was ineffective in solving problems. He gave an example of the Ministry of Housing not completing the housing backlog.

"In addition, Bekraf is ineffective and merged again at the Ministry of Tourism. So, there must be a mature calculation," he said.

The Indonesian Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf) was formed by President Joko Widodo in the 2014-2019 period, to separate creative economy tasks from the Ministry of Tourism.

Bekraf is a body that is at one level below the ministry that functions to strengthen the creative economy sector, including protection for creative works by Indonesian artists. However, starting in 2019, Jokowi even merged Bekraf with the Ministry of Tourism.

Furthermore, he hopes that the addition of this ministry will not be based on the request for political allocation. "Don't let the goal be to accommodate the request for allocation of political parties (political police parties)," he added.

The same thing was expressed by Achmad Nur Hidayat, economist of UPN Veteran Jakarta. He said Prabowo's formation of a new K/L has the potential to increase the burden on state finances because it must allocate funds to build physical infrastructure, operations, and payroll for new employees. even though state finances should be allocated for development programs that have a direct impact on people's welfare, such as education and health.

The formation of a new K/L has the potential to add to the complexity and hinder coordination in the government.

"In the context of complex bureaucracy, the addition of new structures often adds to the overlap of functions, slows down decision making, and increases the risk of confusion in policy implementation," he said.