---

Director of Legislation Litigation of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights Ardiansyah giving his statement on behalf of the Government in the judicial review hearing of Article 10 of Law No. 39 of 2008 on State Ministries, Monday (10/2) in the Courtroom of the Constitutional Court. Photo by Humas MK/Ifa.

JAKARTA, Public Relations of the Constitutional Court—Based on their duties, functions, and authorities, the deputy minister is a position within the organizational structure of the state ministry. It is one level below the minister and also one level above the secretary general, inspectorate general, and directorate general, with their distinct respective duties and functions.

This was conveyed by Director of Legislation Litigation of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights Ardiansyah on behalf of the Government in the judicial review hearing of Article 10 of Law No. 39 of 2008 on State Ministries, Monday (10/2/2020) in the Plenary Courtroom of the Constitutional Court (MK). The case No. 80/PUU-XVII/2019, petitioned by Forum on Law and Constitutional Studies (FKHK) Chairman Bayu Segara, was presided over by Chief Constitutional Justice Anwar Usman along with the other eight constitutional justices.

Ardiansyah then discussed leadership in the ministries, where in carrying out their duties the ministers are assisted by deputy ministers and structural institutions such as secretary generals, inspectorate generals, and directorate generals, along with the subordinates. Since the deputy minister position was formed, the organizational structure of state ministries will increase. Thus, the addition of the organizational structure of state ministries has implications for the overall organizational structure of state ministries.

Ardiansyah also explained that according to the Presidential Regulation No. 60 of 2012 on Deputy Ministers, the delegation of authority of the deputy minister follows Article 10 of the State Ministry Law. "So deputy ministers are not members of the cabinet with financial rights and other facilities. Deputy ministers are below the financial rights and other facilities for ministers and above the structural position of Echelon 1A. In addition, deputy ministers are given the authority to assist ministerial leadership tasks and must coordinate with the ministers," Ardiansyah explained. 

Coordination Principle

Deputy ministers always apply the principles of coordination, integration, and synchronization with Echelon 1 officials within ministries. For example, Ardiansyah added, in terms of carrying out coordination tasks, deputy ministers are authorized to hold coordination meetings with officials within the ministries. Therefore, the deputy minister\'s workload is assignment from the minister concerned. Therefore, the workload and role and function of deputy ministers depend on the tasks assigned to them.

The Petitioner believes that the inauguration of 12 deputy ministers by President Joko Widodo on October 25, 2019 contradicts Article 1 paragraph (3) of the 1945 Constitution because the deputy minister office is subjective without a clear position, authority, and function in the State Ministry Law. The function of deputy ministers is regulated by a presidential regulation, which goes against the constitutional rules, in which the duties and authority of the deputy minister are subject matter of the law. The State Ministry Law does not regulate the duties, function, and authority of deputy ministers at all. This certainly can lead to arbitrariness, by giving authority to deputy ministers without involving the House (DPR) as the people\'s representatives.

In the petition, the Petitioner also mentioned that the appointment of 12 deputy ministers was a subjective act of the president, who did not have a clear reason for urgency. The Petitioner considered the deputy ministerial position to have resulted in the state having to prepare special facilities, which only wasted the state budget. Therefore, the Petitioner requested that the provisions of Article 10 of the State Ministry Law be declared contrary to the 1945 Constitution and has no binding legal force.  

Before concluding the session, Justice Anwar said that the session would resume on Tuesday, February 18, 2020 at 14:00 WIB to listen to the House\'s statement. (Sri Pujianti/A.L./NRA)

Translated by: Yuniar Widiastuti

Uploaded on 2/11/2020

---