Roundup: Indonesian president evaluates working performance of ministers, may lead to cabinet reshuffle

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has received reports filed in by his ministers about their working performances in their first six months in office which reports said may lead to cabinet reshuffle expected to take place after the Muslim's Eid festivity mid next month.

The president's cabinet secretary Andi Widjajanto said that the president is now reading the reports from all of his ministers he received on Thursday afternoon.

"The forms of report that have been collected consisted of narration and program matrix. It would be the president himself to assess the reports, which ones categorized in red, yellow or green codes. The president has his own criteria to determine," Andi said in the presidential palace on Friday.

He added that besides being obliged to file in their achievements and results of their jobs in the first six months holding their offices, the ministers were also told to explain their working plans within the next six months.

State Secretary Minister Pratikno said that the order to collect reports from the ministers was intended to enable the president to see ministries that need further assistance or the other ones which already has good performance in carrying out their tasks.

"The president wants to encourage ministries that need further assistance and would weigh which ministry that needs to be synergized with the other ones. All sector and issues were correlated to each other," Pratikno said earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, speaking on a different occasion, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said that cabinet evaluation was a proper thing conducted by a leader.

He added that the president has some idea of ministries which had not demonstrated their utmost in carrying out their tasks. Reports said that among ministers considered to be replaced were the ones responsible for economy issues as they were assessed of incapable to control prices following fuel price hike policy applied by the government.

During his inspection in Tanjung Priok seaport here on Thursday, President Widodo was unhappy to see long period of dwelling time for cargos to undergo administration process before being released from the seaport premises.

The president has threatened to dismiss officials responsible for the issue if they cannot improve the dwelling time in the seaport.

President Widodo found out that dwelling time in Tanjung Priok seaport takes an average of 5.2 days, far from his expectation at 4.7 days.

The president said that the long dwelling time in the seaport has caused 780 trillion rupiah (about 58.5 billion U.S. Dollars) of losses to the state.

Presidential Chief of Staff Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said on Friday that cabinet reshuffle is the president's exclusive rights.

Citing the incident in the seaport, Luhut said that the officials assessed by the president were not merely in ministerial level, but also officials in first, second and third echelons, hinting that replacement may also be applied down to those levels. Endi