| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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Strategies applied to control the implementation of the UDFC are as follows:
a. To monitor all the process of the project activities in order to early detect any deviation or violation on the executions;
b. To conduct a proactive leadership and staff management at the budget execution level;
c. To strengthen the Local Authorities’ commitment in responding to the monitoring results;
d. To empower the loyal, patient, Human resources involved have criteria loyal, patient, determined, communicative and hardworking individuals;
e. To conduct no-pause and timely-updated form filling and submission;
f. To ease the access of gaining information about the monitoring results (via TV monitors, websites, text messages, and mass media);
g. To prepare skillful controller officers, mastering the ability to detect any problems and to provide visible solutions and to maintain direct access to Local Authorities.
P2K-APBA set some aphorisms in order to provide easy benchmarking evaluation, namely:
a. Zero equals to zero; all control variables must be in synchronous state;
b. Anti-virus for Hand-shakers and Scapegoat Cases; ensuring all activities supported by data and facts;
c. No-Pause Monitoring; providing the most updated data at any time;
d. High Risk; recognizing projects tending to rise deviations or violations requiring high-rank officials’ intervention in the process;
e. Tak Tuk; mimicking the sound of a hammer on wood piece, marking the beginning of the project activities;
f. Pecah Telor, imitating the state of egg-breaking, marking the initial fund liquefaction; and
g. Love Letters, indicating the warnings given by the Governor to Head of Local Service Units.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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The implementation of UDCF Mechanism involves various stakeholders in several stages of the projects activities:
a. Planning Stage:
Regional Planning and Development Agency; Budget Team of Aceh Provinsial Government; Local House of Representative
b. Budgeting Stage
Local Office of Finance of Aceh
c. Bidding Stage
Development Administration Bureau, Procurement Service Unit, Electronic Procurement Authority
d. Implementation Stage
Local Service Units of Cities/Regencies; Budget Users; Contractors; Supervisory Consultants; Field Supervisors
e. Utilization Stage
Community; Auditors; Special Committee of the Legislatures; Office of Local Assets Management
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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Infrastructures used for this innovation include the available resources of the Government of Aceh and the former BRR NAD-Nias. Besides being used as control center, the building is also for the meetings venue for Governor and provincial and local budget managers’ leaders.
The individuals empowered in this innovation must meet the criteria of loyal, patient, determined, meticulous, communicative, and hardworking personnel, besides the ability to master the spreadsheet office software. Each job function holds specific responsibilities.
a. General Controller; the personnel must be able to cooperate with the head of the program at Local Service Units;
b. Technical Controller; the personnel must be able to direct the field operations as well as control the territory;
c. Data Controller; the personnel must be able to handle data server management;
d. Secretariat; the personnel must be able to master orderly administration, finance, documentation and presentation.
The control center office is also equipped with internet access to facilitate intra-and-inter-network connection and communication to provide timely-updated data. The rest-area inside the building as well as pantry and social activities area are also provided.
To support these resources, P2K-APBA receive the fund allocation from the Government of Aceh through Regional Planning and Development Agency covering the needs of personnel honorarium, office operations, and field visits and meetings.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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a. The budget absorption rate increased significantly from 60% in 2010 to 90% in 2014 with proportional monthly budget absorption rate;
b. The innovation creates the transparency of all the government projects, reduce the number of falsified reports, as well as increasing the probabilities of timely projects finishing;
c. The transparent process supports the value of Good Governance principle in bureaucratic reform issues; besides, the innovation also encourage more coordination between the provincial and local governments;
d. The government spending activities will be neatly and orderly noted into an integrated record, making it easy for auditors to conduct any evaluation regarding the projects activities and budget realization;
e. Community are involved in the process, allowing the residents to participate more in the external monitoring and evaluation process.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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The UDCF is used as a monitoring tools by applying the Zero equals to Zero (0 = 0) to ensure that the data is true. The data properties include fixed data (budget), additional data (suppliers/providers selection), and dynamic data (activities results). The verified data are then confirmed by Local Service Units.
Once the testing is done and the entire variable data have been synchronized, the results are then presented to Governors and Head of Local Service Units. The results of the monitoring will be periodically publicized on TV monitors and P2K website, as well as published in mass media.
Sanctions and rewards to the performance of the Local Service Units are expected to motivate the performance improvement from corresponding personnel, all of which are monitored and controlled through the UDCF tool.
The UDCF Mechanism is also opened to flexibilities upon dynamic situation, condition, and current issues in the implementation. Besides, the support from the high-rank officials, in this case – The Governor, Mayor, or Regent, will greatly affect the sustainability of the innovation implementation.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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At the beginning of the implementation, there were some resistances from the local service units. This format is considered as a tool to dismantle the existing problems and to publicize the poor performance to the Regional Executives, but after a while, it can be later accepted as a means to provide solutions to the problems faced, from planning activities to budget utilization. By not interfering with the substance of the performance of local service units the UDCF Mechanism displays the actual field data in order to increase internal controls in each work unit area.
The UDCF can easily adjust to the circumstances of the consumers, so this format is difficult to be developed in the form of software application, yet adaptable to Spreadsheet Office Software appearance.
The absence of legal entity for the control team is also an obstacle to the sustainability of the innovation in the future. The problem should be solved by the commitment of the government authorities to legalize the existence of such team into a well-established organization.
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