Manajemen Pengeluaran Daerah di Indonesia: Penanganan Krisis Kesehatan dan Ekonomi Selama Pandemi COVID-19

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze local expenditure management strategies in Indonesia to recover the health and economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study used a qualitative approach with qualitative data collection methods through literature studies including books, journal articles, news, reports, and regulation. The results showed that local governments in Indonesia have refocused and reallocated Local Revenue and Expenditure Budgets as a local expenditure management strategy to handle the health and economic crisis. However, the implementation of the refocusing and reallocation policy faced problems such as limited fiscal space and was not being supported by an effective control, monitoring, and evaluation system. More findings explain that all local governments in Indonesia do have not a large fiscal capacity, so there are no options to make expansionary fiscal policies. In the implementing policy process, the Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia has warned that there are risks of mismanagement, corruption, and state budget fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, Indonesia Corruption Watch found that there are still weaknesses in the management of regional expenditures, especially in the process of procuring goods/services that are vulnerable to corruption. Therefore, the researcher suggested that local governments should have been optimizing Transfer to Local and Village Funds, as well as strengthening the role of external and internal supervisory agencies to carry out a system of controlling, monitoring, and evaluating local finance.