President Prabowo Subianto stated that he had instructed Finance Minister Sri Mulyani to cut the foreign official travel budget by 50% for government officials.
He proposed that these funds could be redirected to infrastructure projects that benefit the public. In response to this statement, Professor of Management and Public Policy at UGM Wahyudi Kumorotomo believes the policy would be difficult to implement.
This is because the 2024—2029 Merah Putih Cabinet has 48 ministries and five agencies, compared to the 34 ministries in the 2019—2024 Indonesia Maju Cabinet. The increase in ministries makes it unlikely that the official travel budget can be reduced.
“The current cabinet cannot be more cost-effective than the previous one because it has more ministries, requiring more funds to support the bureaucracy,” said the UGM Faculty of Social and Political Sciences lecturer on Wednesday (Jan. 8).
Professor Kumorotomo explained that the 14 new ministries now require a larger budget than before. Additionally, some other ministries need higher funds than what was originally allocated.
“We can see the need for establishing offices, facilities, infrastructure, and new officials, which consume a budget,” Professor Kumorotomo explained.
In this context, the expert referred to the statement by Minister of Human Rights Natalius Pigai, who requested his ministry’s budget be increased from IDR 64 billion to IDR 20 trillion.
Meanwhile, the Coordinating Minister for Food, Zulkifli Hasan, requested an additional IDR 505 billion to support his programs. “How can we save up to 50%?” he asked.
Reassessing Urgency and Relevance
Before the policy is implemented, Professor Kumorotomo suggested that the relevance of the budget plan should be reassessed. During the planning stage, evaluation and monitoring are crucial to identify unproductive budget items.
Cost-saving measures can be implemented by cutting unnecessary expenses, such as activities irrelevant to the duties and functions of each ministry.
For instance, the Ministry of Environment’s budget shows that 70% of its funds are not used for capital expenditures but are mostly spent on personnel costs. The existing budget could be used to purchase acacia, trembesi, and mangrove seedlings, which are vital for environmental conservation.
However, the budget structure reveals that more funds are spent on outreach, technical communication, seminars, and the like.
“That pattern must be changed. Ensure that the budget is prioritized for capital expenditure,” said Professor Kumorotomo.
On the other hand, he does not recommend budget cuts for agencies or ministries whose performance relies heavily on official travel.
For example, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Investment, and the Investment Coordinating Board. Cutting the official travel budget for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would harm Indonesia’s diplomatic performance.
“The impact on the government’s performance would be significant,” Professor Kumorotomo said.
He added that not all sectors should have their budgets reduced. According to the professor, Indonesia currently has a golden opportunity to leap into developed-nation status due to its demographic bonus.
Health, education, and social services sectors need to receive more budget allocations.
However, based on the 2025 State Budget Proposal (RAPBN), the budget for these sectors, such as the Ministry of Higher Education, has been cut by IDR 15.7 trillion. Professor Kumorotomo criticized this policy, which contradicts the government’s priorities.
“Subsidies for state universities have been reduced, forcing them to raise tuition fees. If we want to become a developed country, provide scholarships to smart children so they have broader opportunities to learn,” he said.
One example of a budget-cutting policy was the budget reallocation during the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, the government implemented budget refocusing across central and regional governments.
Unnecessary official travel was reallocated to combat COVID-19 and aid economic recovery. Official trips were replaced with virtual meetings, while stocks of oxygen, vitamins, and medicines were increased.
Bureaucratic Reform within the Government
Changes in the central government will affect local governments, and the official travel budget cuts will inevitably affect employee performance.
Professor Kumorotomo argued that the policy would be more effective if there were a strong commitment from all government officials or employees at both the central and local levels. This is not without reason.
It has been difficult for civil servants to reduce and save on travel budgets without affecting their performance.
In such cases, cuts to employee spending or official travel budgets result in fewer activities. This is because allowances are tied to the activities performed. He fears that if employees are asked to reduce travel or cut expenses for seminars and such, it will affect the quality and quantity of government activities.
In his explanation, Professor Kumorotomo quoted Gordon Tullock, an American economist, who said that public sector employees tend to become budget maximizers.
In contrast, private sector employees who can save receive additional incentives. He noted that civil servants utilize state assets as long as their work performance is assessed positively.
“That mentality among bureaucrats is the obstacle. We cannot expect the same performance if incentives and official travel expenses are reduced. That is the issue we face,” Professor Kumorotomo explained.
He believes that the official travel budget cuts must be accompanied by bureaucratic reform. Bureaucratic reform involves updating and fundamentally changing the governance system to achieve good governance.
In this context, he mentioned the bureaucratic reforms implemented in 2008 by then-Finance Minister Sri Mulyani.
At that time, the government provided additional remuneration as an Income Improvement Allowance for civil servants. Unfortunately, this allowance was not accompanied by performance and public service improvement targets.
According to Professor Kumorotomo, the first step should be to link employee performance indicators with allowances. If the performance records have clear indicators and can be used to monitor employees’ ability to serve the public, high-performing employees should receive additional income, and vice versa.
He recommended that official travel budget cuts be based on objective evaluations. The government must ensure that employees conduct official trips according to the Official Travel Order without manipulating it.
Once that issue is resolved, the government can reassess the effectiveness of training and trips. If the trips do not improve performance, it would be better to reduce the budget.
“If we can use objective evaluations to improve performance, I believe it would be very beneficial,” Professor Kumorotomo concluded.
Author: Tiefany
Editor: Gusti Grehenson
Post-editor: Afifudin Baliya
Photo: Kini.id