Ombudsman Expects Struggles in Handling Complaints Due to Budget Cuts

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Prabowo Subianto's budget cuts policy also significantly affects Indonesia's . The budget cut will disrupt the handling of various public complaints received by the Ombudsman.

Ombudsman Chairperson Mokhammad Najih said that the budget allocated to the agency is very minimal. The allocated funds are guaranteed to be insufficient to carry out the Ombudsman's main task as a supervisory agency for public services provided by the government.

"The resolution of public reports and the oversight opinion has no sufficient budget to achieve the targets as stipulated in the 2025 Activity Implementation Plan," Najih said at a meeting in the DPR Commission II building, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday, February 12, 2025.

The meeting of DPR Commission II with the Ombudsman is a follow-up to Prabowo Subianto's government decision to instruct ministries, institutions, and regional heads to implement budget efficiency.

Last month, Prabowo issued a Presidential Instruction (Inpres) on budget efficiency in the implementation of the 2025 State Budget (APBN) and Regional Budget (APBD). Prabowo targets budget savings of Rp 306 trillion.

This budget cut is to finance various main programs of Prabowo's government, such as free nutritious meals (MBG) and free health check-ups. In addition, the government's maturing debts and principal debt interest in 2025 reach Rp 1.3 trillion.

Mokhammad Najih said that the Ombudsman's budget in the previous fiscal year before the cut was Rp 255 billion. Then the government cut half of that budget to Rp 163.991 billion.

But the government added to the amount of the Ombudsman's budget cut through reconstruction. As of February 11, the total budget of the Ombudsman that was cut increased to Rp 91.6 billion or 35.84 percent. "This is the result of reconstruction based on consultations with the Directorate General of Budget as of February 11," Najih said.

Most of Ombudsman's allocation after the is used for employee salaries, amounting to Rp 127 billion. The remaining budget will be used for operational activities, including following up on public complaints.

Ombudsman targets to resolve 7,700 public complaints in 2025. In handling these reports, the Ombudsman requires a budget of Rp 16.25 billion.

Ombudsman also targets oversight of 637 agencies for the purpose of oversight opinions on the implementation of public services. The budget needs for this activity reach Rp 15.99 billion. As for the Investigation Report on Self-Initiated Initiatives (IAPS) activities, a budget of Rp 2 billion is required.

Editor's Choice:

 to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News