Public service bureaucracy in the VUCA Era

Responding to the presentation, Eko Prasojo added that the issue of improving public services in the VUCA era. An equally serious issue is the sustainability of the initiatives and innovations that have been carried out at the regional level. This is because the innovations that are present are the political agenda of the elected regional head, therefore once the regional head is replaced, the service orientation can change and the existing innovations are not continued.

Eko Prasojo emphasized one important thing about culture and public service. Eko Prasojo said "the basic problems of public service in Indonesia include the culture of corruption, collusion and nepotism, primordialism, politics of buying and selling positions, an individualistic bureaucratic system that causes low access and poor quality of service, inefficiency, and discrimination. To overcome this, radical changes, big leaps, or quantum leaps are needed in bureaucratic management." said Eko

“I will give an example, when the computer assisted test (CAT) system was offered as part of the ASN selection in 2013, many local governments felt unprepared and asked for discretion. In the end, it was decided in 2014 to implement the CAT test for the first time. In the end, local governments were able to implement it until now. In other words, sometimes it is necessary to force the change.”

"Another thing that needs to be considered is the need to make fundamental or basic reforms/backbone reforms that can ensure that changing regional heads does not immediately make innovation and public services worse. There needs to be collaborative work to be able to align between organizations, as well as the implementation of a bureaucratic system based on ASN competency (merit based system)," concluded Eko.

Responding to the presentation of the two previous speakers, Alimatul Qibtiyah, who is a Commissioner of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, reminded the importance of continuing to pay attention to vulnerable groups in public services. In public services like today, many complaints related to violence against women are not handled seriously. Changes in services must pay attention to the dimension of inclusivity towards vulnerable groups, especially during a pandemic and uncertainty like today. The impact of both has an impact on violence against women.

Alimatul Qibtiyah said "during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was gender-based violence, there was also a significant increase in the number of complaints to 299,911 cases, such as domestic violence and sexual violence in the community. Divorce cases also increased due to economic problems due to the COVID-19 pandemic which increased the workload in the household." said Alimatul Qibtiyah

"The problem lies in the limited handling of existing complaints, even though the number of complaints has increased. In the 2021 National Commission on Violence Against Women annual report, it was documented how difficult it was for victims to access service institutions due to the system having to adapt to health protocols during the pandemic. Not to mention the issue of service infrastructure that is not balanced between Java and outside Java. These obstacles must be considered in efforts to improve public services," concluded Alimatul Qibtiyah.

In the final session of the discussion, Alimatul Qibtiyah emphasized the need to focus public services not only on the general public, but also on vulnerable communities. Eko Prasojo at the end of the discussion emphasized the importance of developing digital infrastructure to encourage efforts to implement digital governance. Eko Prasojo said "it is necessary to change the orientation of infrastructure development such as road construction and so on, to the development of technological infrastructure that can encourage digitalization."

In closing the discussion, Erwan Agus Purwanto emphasized the sustainability of innovation that is given a strong legal umbrella, so that public services can be provided optimally. Erwan Agus Purwanto said "the most important thing is to create sustainable innovation, therefore a strong legal umbrella is needed, so that if the regional head changes, there is still a guarantee of budgeting and human resources in efforts to improve public services. The use of super apps can be a way to encourage digital governance, while ensuring that sustainable innovation efforts continue to be carried out. We can learn from South Korea where the initiation of changes to improve public services was carried out from one government to the next, not depending on the leader's agenda."

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