Budgeting reform in the Covid-19 pandemic era and the response of the local government in Indonesia: A case study in Southeast Sulawesi Province

Abstract

This article describes budgetary reform policies in the Covid-19 pandemic era and the local government's response. This article aims to answer how the regional budgeting mechanism is in the pandemic era, as well as the response of regional apparatus organizations to budgeting reform. The data sources in the article use the literature study method and documents sourced from the Southeast Sulawesi Provincial government and media coverage. This article finds that the Indonesian government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic issued a policy of budget refocusing. This policy applies to all ministries/agencies, including local governments, the responses of local governments are divided into two groups, specifically, there are those who do budget refocusing, but there are likewise local governments that do not refocus their budgets. The Southeast Sulawesi Provincial Government took the attitude of refocusing the budget by issuing Governor Regulation Number 10 of 2020, this shows that the regional government is responding to the direction of the central government. Nevertheless, this budget refocusing policy does not appear to have the full support of the Regional Work Units (SKPD) or the bureaucracy, which is subordinate to the governor. This can be seen from the existence of several SKPDs that maintain their budgets thus as not to experience a significant reduction. This finding shows that although budgeting reform during the pandemic period was implemented quickly, the substance, nominal and budget scope of each regional apparatus organization did not encounter much change.