National Disaster Management Coordination Board is Changed
Friday, 14 March, 2008 | 16:26 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The National Disaster Management Coordination Board (Bakornas) has been changed to the National Disaster Management Agency. The President has issued a Presidential Regulation No. 8, 2008 for this change.

“We are preparing personnel for this agency”, said the deputy for Emergency Management, Tabrani, when contacted by Tempo yesterday. The agency, he said, will be a non-departmental government body. “The Head of the national agency will be on the same level as minister and be responsible directly to President”.

Different from the Coordination Board, said Tabrani, the National Agency has commander’s function. Every time there’s a disaster, the National Agency will be able to order the related apparatuses, like the military and police, to help disaster management.

The national agency has a clearer organizational system than the Coordination Board, and the administration will be from provincial level to district/city. “The National Agency will have their own budget allocation; it is no longer under the vice president,” Tabrani said.

This change should have been made six months ago after Regulation No. 24 year 2007 about disaster management was released. This reformation, he said, should be coordinated with other boards such as the ministry of the empowerment of the state apparatus and the finance department, because it is related to employment affairs and salary.

Director of Disaster Mitigation, Sugeng Triutomo, said the regulations have not been integrated for disaster management like regulation for forestry. According to Sugeng, forest management is still limited to the forest resources without an environmental aspect.

The forestry domain, he said has been limited to the authority of the Forestry Department. “The greening movement does not yet involve entire components”, he said in the dialog of “When Indonesia is ready to handle disaster,” at the Tempo shop, Jalan Utan Kayu 68-H, East Jakarta.

Ideally, area management in every region should consider the aspect of disaster risk analysis, as it is in regulation No. 24 , 2007 about disaster management, and regulation No. 26 about area management.

There have been two cities synchronizing both regulations. “As far as I know, it's been Nabire and Alor,” Sugeng said.

PRAMONO | Iqbal Muhtarom