In the new regulation, a number of mechanisms in the procurement of government goods and services through Swakelola Tipe III have been simplified. This is expected to promote the use of the scheme.
The change in the implementation guideline of Swakelola Tipe III was conveyed in a discussion themed “Using Swakelola Tipe III according to LKPP Regulation Number 3/2021”, which was held online on Thursday (24/6). Resource persons in the discussion that was organised by Knowledge Sector Initiative (KSI) included Zulhenny, representing the Directorate of Strategic Development and Public Procurement Policy of the National Public Procurement Agency (LKPP), Sudes Nazarudin, representing the Directorate of Budgeting System, Directorate General of Budgets of the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu), and Agung Yulianta, Director of Treasury System, Directorate General of Treasury Affairs of the Ministry of Finance (Kemenkeu). This discussion was moderated by KSI’s Senior Program Coordinator, Budhi Bahroelim.
LKPP has recently published LKPP Regulation Number 3 Year 2021 on Swakelola Guideline. This new regulation followed up on the issuance of Presidential Regulation Number 12 Year 2021 on the Amendment of Presidential Regulation Number 16 Year 2018 on Government Goods and Services Procurement. This new guideline serves as the legal basis for the implementation of Swakelola Tipe III as a goods/service procurement mechanism planned and supervised by the government and implemented by Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).
Opening the discussion, KSI’s Policy and Innovation Development (PID) Lead, Dias Budiati Prasetiamartati, said that KSI has engaged in the dissemination of the use of Swakelola Tipe III during recent years. With this new regulation, it is necessary to conduct discussions on its implementing mechanism. Based on KSI’s observation, until today, there have been four critical issues regarding finances in the use of Swakelola Tipe III mechanism. They are the cost standard, advanced payment, indirect costs paid by CSOs upon becoming the government’s goods and services procurement partners, and reporting provisions. “Hopefully this forum can address these challenges,” she said.
LKPP Regulation No 3/2021 has simplified several implementation aspects of Swakelola Tipe III. “This regulation was developed based on inputs from goods and services procurement organisers and implementers. Thus, the content is an evaluation result on the previous regulation,” explained Ibu Zulhenny, who attended on behalf of LKPP. She said that there are a number of new things in this guideline, starting from the simplification of requirements and activity stages in implementing Swakelola Tipe III to a provision regarding sanction.
In relation with Swakelola Tipe III implementers, for example, the element of CSO is expanded by including Private Universities and professional organisations with legal status and taxation status confirmation certification. In addition, the requirement of balance sheet audit for the last three years, which has been deemed burdensome by CSOs, has been erased. Regarding the cost standard for CSOs’ personnel salary, LKPP allows them to refer on the amount written in the previous or ongoing contract, in addition to applying the cost standard issued by the government. According to Zulhenny, this new regulation will immediately be disseminated to Ministries, Institutions, and Local Governments (KLPD). “The dissemination plan is scheduled to start on July. This new regulation has also been published in LKPP’s website, from which you can download it,” she said.
One of the participants of the discussion from Yayasan Nusantara Sejati (YNS) shared the experience on cost standard in implementing Swakelola Tipe III with a government institution. When its proposal had been declared qualified and the requirements had been completed, the cost standard written in the proposal was revised because it had to be adjusted to the government’s cost standard. In fact, the budget stated in the proposal was directly linked to the quality of work that would be done. “So there were so many budget that was not adjusted to the real condition. We are talking about the frontier, outermost, and least developed regions (3T) here. It is not the same as doing activities in Java,” the participant said.
From the financing standard side, the use of Swakelola Tipe III needs to be prepared by Ministries/Institutions (K/L) since the budget planning stage. Responding to YNS’ experience, Sudes Nazarudin from the Directorate of Budgeting System of Ministry of Finance said that since the beginning, the government institution intending to use this mechanism should have included it in its annual planning. Therefore, the budget planning can be done early, thus preventing any technical challenges during implementation in the current year, especially related to cost standard. “Cost standard can be calibrated due to certain uniqueness that cannot otherwise be applied in general,” he explained.
Sudes added that the budgeting system does not only know one door. So besides the established general cost standard, there are other cost standards that can be made for special cases. These doors can be used by KLPD to support the implementation of Swakelola Tipe III scheme. “If they need a new cost standard, the relevant KLPDs can propose a special cost standard to the Directorate General of Budgets. We will test it for approval,” he added.
Related to reporting, the Director of Treasury Affairs of the Ministry of Finance, Agung Yulianta, explained that government institutions are involved in the accountability of Swakelola Tipe III implementation. This differs from goods and services procurement through Vendors or private sector. For the fee of Swakelola implementers, the amount can refer to the existing cost standard. However, this type of cost standard can be exempted if there is a special condition approved by the Minister of Finance. As for paying the fee to partner CSOs, the disbursement can be done per stage, according to the swakelola contract signed by both the government and CSO.
For the implementation of research activities, there is a separate regulation regarding Output Cost Standard (SBK). So, the payment phases have been specifically regulated according to research stages. Therefore, the fee disbursement can be done in advance or prior to starting the activity. According to Agung, this research payment pattern can be adopted for payment using Swakelola Tipe III mechanism. “Advanced payment for special cases is allowed with a guarantee. For instance in the form of a written commitment that also mentions sanction if this commitment is failed to be delivered. The most important thing is that this is included in the agreement and there is a commitment guarantee, along with a sanction if it is not fulfilled. This is to guarantee the money will be returned to the state,” he said.
From this discussion, it appeared that the budgeting and reporting aspects of Swakelola Tipe III needed to be discussed further. KSI will facilitate a further discussion by involving LKPP, Kemenkeu, and CSOs and private universities that have used Swakelola Tipe III, such as AKATIGA, Centre for Innovation Policy and Governance (CIPG), Yayasan Pendidikan Gunadarma, Article 33 Indonesia, along with their government partners, such as the Ministry of Social Affairs (Kemensos) and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek), which have conveyed their commitment to clarify the budgeting and reporting aspects of Swakelola Tipe III.
