Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has announced an unprecedented plan to close more than 750 unprofitable and unproductive state-owned enterprises by the end of this year. He has also proposed setting up a special “ad hoc” court to investigate irregularities and corruption at these bodies over the past 30 years.
President Prabowo announced the decision in an address to the nation in Indonesia’s parliament on Friday.
The information was reported by the French news agency AFP.
In his address, President Prabowo said the country had many state-owned enterprises that were essentially unproductive. Despite running losses year after year, they had shown fictitious profits on paper to conceal them.
“I thought the number of state-owned enterprises might be 300 or 400. But the review found the number to be 1,074,” he said. He expressed dissatisfaction that many were being run as they pleased, without accountability to the state.
Indonesia set up a sovereign wealth fund called Danantara last year to safeguard state assets. The scale of the number of state-owned enterprises emerged during a review of national assets and institutions through that fund.
“The number of unproductive state institutions is very high. They are always making losses, yet showing profits. Those profits are in fact created on paper,” the president said.
He said 290 institutions had already been closed as part of the overhaul of the state sector, and that the total number of state bodies would be brought down to within 300 by Dec 31.
“We will completely close more than 750 institutions. Only those that are genuinely productive will be kept,” he said.
The president described the whole exercise as one of the largest corporate restructurings in the world.
According to Indonesian government figures, about 50 trillion Indonesian rupiah (about $2.8 billion) in operating costs has already been saved by cutting board pay and allowances, controlling building and vehicle rents and curbing unnecessary business travel. The government’s target for this year is to raise those savings above 70 trillion rupiah.
The president has put a proposal to parliament for a special ad hoc court to investigate the role of these institutions’ boards over the past 30 years, to prevent the waste of state assets and ensure accountability. Alongside the tough measures, Prabowo indicated he would keep a softer route open, urging lawmakers to consider a “special amnesty” for officials or managers who acknowledge their irregularities and mistakes and show remorse.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report