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Reinventing Local Government
Government of Gorontalo Province
Indonesia

The Problem

There were many serious problems facing by Government of Gorontalo Province just after Gorontalo become autonomous region as province in 2001. In the government sector, there were lack of professional staffs, red tape everywhere, low public management capacity and limited budget for running the government and community development. Most of civil services were graduated from general high school and educational or religion faculty of the local university. To disburse the government fund to undertake the development activities, it took 15 steps of administration procedures and at least 30 days process. Most of the development activities did not achieve the annual target because of low public management. On the other hand, the total annual budget in 2001 was limited in amount of 77.7 billion rupiahs. As results, the speed and flow of works were slow and public services delivery was very poor.
In the development sector, the number of poor people was as high as 46,39% (the population in 2001 was 850000), the life expectancy was 58 years, infant mortality rate (IMR) was 4,8 per 1000 infants born alive (2002), the rough education participation index of secondary and high school were 55,2% and 30,8% respectively, the income per capita based on constant price was 1.1 million rupiahs, the total investment was 230 billion rupiahs and the rate of economic growth was 5,38% in 2001. These have brought about low of Human Development Index (HDI), i.e. 64.1 in 2002. Meanwhile, Gorontalo Province has limited natural resources to be exploited as a capital for development. The only natural resources readily available were agricultural land and marine area. Most of the agriculture land were planted by corn and paddy with productivity as high as 1 ton per hectare and 3 ton per hectare respectively.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
By simplifying the financial administration procedures, the red tape in financial management were shortened from 15 administration procedures to disburse fund for running government activity to be 3 procedures without neglecting regulation and law. It takes only less than 5 days for financial administration process. The result of the red tape reduction is better public service delivery. There are more efficient and effective of government budget management as shown by more allocation of budget for public expenditure than for government expenditure. Public trust to government increases as shown by increasing of people participation in government development programs. Performance of civil services both productivity and quality increase because of more educated and pay for performance incentive.
Economical and social development indicators improve drastically in five years (2002-2006). In 2006, the number of poor people decreased to 29%, the income of farmers increased from around 1.1 million rupiahs to around 3.5 million rupiahs per year, the economic growth was 7.3%, the rough education participation index of secondary and high school were 69,9% and 40,6% respectively (2005), the life expectancy was 65 years, infant mortality rate (IMR) was 2,1 per 1000 infants born alive and the total investment raised to 2700 billion rupiahs. All of these have brought about the increase of HDI to 67.7. As consequence, Fadel Muhammad was reelected as Governor for the second term (2007-2011) with 82% ballot in 2006.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The solution was proposed by The Governor of Gorontalo, Fadel Muhammad. The initiatives have been implemented by Government of Gorontalo Province through its technical agencies include Provincial Secretary, Provincial Financial Agency, Civil Service Development Agency, Provincial Office of Education, Youth and Sports Affairs, Provincial Office of Agriculture, and Provincial Office of Fishery and Marine. The stakeholders consist of Local parliament, District Government, Private sectors acting as partner in development activities community and community groups.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
The strategies used for implementing the Reinventing Local Government were injection of entrepreneurial values and transplanting managerial practices in private enterprise to public sector and government. There were three strategies namely Bureaucracy Reform, Focus Development Programs and Limited Government Intervention Policy.
Bureaucracy Reform consist of improvement of financial management system for increasing efficiency and effectiveness of Government Expenditure and public services delivery, development of human resources by changing the mind-set of civil service from bureaucracy mind-set to entrepreneurial mind-set through training and mind-set development program , and development of information technology to increase transparency and accountability of governance.
Focus Development Program was proposed to increase the prosperity of people by establishing three main programs namely human resources development, development of agriculture through Agropolitan Concept, and fishery and marine development programs. Human resources development program was aimed at increasing the education participation index of secondary and high school and reduce the number of unemployment. The Agropolitan concept was enterprise approach to agriculture development especially corn development setting up by establishing 9 pillars of agropolitan namely (1) agriculture equipments and machines community services, (2) farmer funds guarantee, (3) introduction of high yielding varieties, fertilizer and pest and diseases control technologies, (4) market creation and price stabilization for corn, (5) development of village irrigation system and agropolitan road, (6) establishment of corn demonstration plot, (7) development of agriculture human resources, (8) corn research and development, and (9) agriculture policy coherence. Fishery and marine development program have been undertaken by setting up master plan and implementation of ‘Taksi Mina Bahari’ Concept (Sea-Fish Taxi).
Limited Government Intervention Policies are the policies taken by government to facilitate community and private sector to invest and develop their enterprises. Several policies have been made namely Investment Facilitation Regional Act, Corn Price Stabilization Governor Decree, Market Creation of Corn, and Technical Assistance for Corn Development.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
In 2001, Government of Gorontalo under Fadel Muhammad as Governor set up the Vision of the Province is: ‘To build Self-Sufficient Communities having entrepreneurship culture that stand over religious morality in the frame of Unity State of Republic of Indonesia’. To attain that vision, Government started to improve the financial administration management in 2002 since the management of public fund was considered as the most important factor in running the governance. The final goal was to use public fund efficiently and effectively in order to improve public service delivery. It was done by simplifying the financial administration procedures from 15 steps to 3 steps in not more than 5 working days and by changing the annual budget structure from higher Government Expenditure to higher public expenditure.
In 2003, Government started to build entrepreneurship culture in the government sector by changing the mindset of civil services from bureaucracy mindset to entrepreneurial mindset. It was followed by improving civil service performance through pay for performance policy. Employees who perform well have been given incentive and bonus. On the other hand, who do not perform well will get some kinds of punishment. In the other side, empowerment of civil service has been done through training and education. In gradual, organization structure has changed from large organization structure to slim organization structure with enhanced function. Entrepreneurship culture was induced in the governance by introducing New Public Management in 2004. Introduction of New Public management has altered drastically job description and the quality of works of civil service as well as the development programs and its implementation.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The main problem was to change the mindset of civil services from bureaucracy mindset to entrepreneurship mindset. To overcome this problem two strategies steps are implemented namely: (1) undertaking mindset training for all civil services continuously and (2) implementation of job tender in recruiting staffs. Another important problem, the government reform was not concurrently followed by the reform in district and sub-district government and in the community attitude. There will be a gap in the perception, attitude, capacity, professionalism among government and between government and community that can cause conflicts. To minimize the problem, publication and dissemination of the development should have been carried out continuously as well as the coordination and synchronization of the programs.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The resources used for the initiative are funds for human resources development, salary increment, and consultants in mind-setting changed, improvement of government management capacity and research and development. This initiative was set up as priority program of government that has to be agreed by local parliament. All funds needed were allocated in the Annual Regional Budget in each relevant government institution.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The initiative has been pushed to be the main concern of all stakeholders, i.e. province government, local parliament, central government, central parliament, people, and NGO. All parties considered reinventing local government is a must for going forwards to achieve the prosperity. The local parliament supported by putting the initiative as the provincial priority program and stated in the Regional Act (PERDA) and in Long term Regional Development Planning. Reinventing local government has been implemented not only as a program but also as culture of governance so that it becomes a value and system. It has become a culture of all government institutions. Reinventing local government is not considered a cost but as an investment. Actually, there has not been specific budget for financing its implementation. All budgets have been included as part of all development activities.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
The lessons learned from the implementation of the initiative of administrative bureaucracy reform are that they need political climate and environment which may guarantee freedom, security, stability and prosperity. Bureaucracy and administrative reform are just as instrument for trailing the better way for government to be more responsive and collaborative in resolving peoples' problems and needs. Reform takes time. Therefore vision clarity is the most important concern, as it makes people know when the reform journey ends. The road map of reform that depicts the detail of stage is needed and must be known by all stakeholders. The success of reform depends on consistency and endurance of the initiator in implementing the steps of reform. Constitution back up is needed to keep consistency. Local endowment and openness attitude in bureaucracy and civil service corps are the catalyst for successful reform.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Government of Gorontalo Province
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Fadel Muhammad
Title:   Governor of Gorontalo Province  
Telephone/ Fax:   +62-435-827007
Institution's / Project's Website:   +62-435-831916
E-mail:   fadel@muhammad.org  
Address:   Governor Office of Gorontalo Province
Postal Code:   96115
City:   Gorontalo
State/Province:   Gorontalo
Country:   Indonesia

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