IJCSS 4 (1) (2023) Pages:. 29-33
Journal homepage: http://pcijournal.org/index.php/ijcss

International Journal of Cultural and Social Science
Published: Pena Cendekia Insani

The Public Service Management of the Medan City Government in
Combating Illegal Charges
Rizky Saputra
Program Studi Ilmu Manajemen, Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Ekonomi Graha Kirana
Article Info

ABSTRACT

Article history:

The practice of illegal levies in the implementation of public services
is an act that is very detrimental to various parties, in this case the
community and the state are victims. The practice of illegal fees can
be prevented by improving the quality of service management based
on 3 main principles, namely transparent, accountable, and
participatory. This paper will review the efforts of the Medan City
Government in eradicating the practice of illegal levies (Pungli) in
Medan City. This research is a qualitative research with a descriptive
approach to literature study. The data is obtained by taking a public
assessment of the quality of service in the public sector in the review
column or comments contained in the media or aspiration channels
within the Medan City Government including websites, social media
channels, and so on. Data analysis was carried out by data reduction,
data presentation and drawing conclusions. The results showed that
there was a decrease in the number of illegal levies in the public sector
of the Medan City Government

Received : 27 October 2022
Revised : 04 Nopember 2022
Accepted : 12 Desember 2022

Keywords:
Management,
Extortion.

Public

Service,

This is an open access article under the CC BY-SAlicense.

Corresponding Author:
Rizky Saputra,
Program Studi Ilmu Manajemen
Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Ekonomi Graha Kirana, Medan, Indonesia
Email: rizkysaputra@graha-kirana.com

1.

INTRODUCTION

Public service is currently a very important issue related to the performance of public service
provision in Indonesia, especially in the local government environment that is in direct contact
with the community. Service is a process of meeting needs through the activities of other people
directly, not only in business organizations but also developing in government organizational
settings (Hilda, 2014). Public services in Indonesia are still dwelling on the impression that is
considered bad, this is an image that is still attached to service provider institutions in Indonesia,
both at the central and regional levels. Dwiyanto explained that public service is a realm where
the State represented by the Government interacts with non-government institutions in this realm,
there is an intensive struggle between the government and its citizens. The poor performance of
governance in terms of public services is certainly felt by the community (Dwiyanto, 2008).
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Public service organizations have the characteristics of public accountability, where every
citizen has the right to evaluate the quality of the services they receive. It is very difficult to assess
the quality of a service without considering the role of the community as the recipient of the
service and the apparatus implementing the service. Evaluation that comes from service users is
the first element in the analysis of the quality of public services. The second element in the analysis
is the ease with which a service is recognized either before in the process or after the service is
provided (Kurniawan, 2005).
Community demands for quality services continue to increase from time to time. These
demands are growing along with the growing awareness that citizens have the right to be provided
with services. To realize the rights of the community, it is required good work effectiveness from
government agencies. The performance of government employees is expected to show their real
contribution in improving the quality of service quality, especially in the governance structure at
the City level in providing services to the community.
The city of Medan is one of the cities with the largest population in Indonesia, as well as the
level of need for public services is also getting higher both in terms of quantity and quality of
service. The elected Mayor of Medan Bobby Nasution-Aulia Rachman during the campaign also
paid more attention to improvements in the public service sector. Medan Mayor Bobby Nasution
wants all management in the public service sector to be fast and smooth, so that there will no
longer be public service apparatus prolonging and making it difficult for residents to carry out
management. This is evident from the case of the Mayor of Medan removing the Lurah of East
Sidorame, Medan Perjuangan Sub-district, Hermanto and the Head of the Simanjuntak
Development Section, who based on reports from residents had collected a sum of money during
administration. Then he removed the Head of Environment 17, Harjosari II Village, Medan
Amplas District because he was proven to have committed extortion to a number of residents
(Shofihara, 2021).
The bad image of public services in the Medan city government sector is certainly a serious
homework that must be considered and found the right solution. President Jokowi has issued
Presidential Regulation (PERPRES) No. 87 of 2016 concerning the Illegal Charges Sweeping
Task Force. So it is important for the Regional and City Governments to be able to implement
the implementation of these regulations technically in the field, especially public sector services
in the government environment. This paper aims to review how public service management is
carried out by the Medan City Government under the leadership of Bobby Nasution-Aulia
Rachman in eradicating the practice of illegal levies (extortion) in Medan City. This paper analyzes
the implementation of public service management, from evaluation planning to the challenges.

2.

RESEARCH METHOD

This research method uses a descriptive qualitative approach to literature study which aims to
provide a detailed description of the issues discussed related to public service management in the
Medan City Government work environment. Data collection is obtained by taking a public
assessment of the quality of service in the public sector in the review or comments column
contained in the media or aspiration channels within the Medan City Government including
websites, social media channels, and so on. Data analysis was carried out with the steps formulated
by Miles and Hubberman, namely data reduction, data presentation and conclusion drawing.
The theoretical framework used to review this problem uses the Exit & Voice Theory by Albert
Hirschman. According to this theory, the performance of public services can be improved if there
is an exit and voice mechanism. The exit mechanism means that if public services are not of high
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quality, then consumers/clients must have the opportunity to choose other preferred
channels/alternatives/public service providers. The voice mechanism means that there is an
opportunity to express dissatisfaction to public service providers. The obstacles to the exit
mechanism are the coercive power of the state, the unavailability of alternative public service
providers, and the unavailability of costs to create alternative public service providers. While the
barriers to voice mechanisms are knowledge and trust in existing mechanisms, accessibility and
costs to use these mechanisms. Thus, to improve public services, it is necessary to have an equal
bargaining position between clients and service providers.

3.

RESULT AND ANALYSIS

Public services are all forms of services, both in the form of public goods and public services,
which in principle are the responsibility and are carried out by central or regional government
agencies in the context of efforts to meet the needs of the community as well as in the context of
implementing the provisions of laws and regulations in line with the implementation of a
decentralized system. Maranda, 2017).
The quality of public services is still characterized by services that are difficult to access,
complicated procedures when it comes to taking care of certain permits, unclear fees and the
practice of illegal levies (extortion), are indicators of the low quality of public services in Indonesia.
Where this is also as a result of various public service problems that have not been felt by the
people such as services in the fields of education, health, transportation, social facilities, and
various services in the field of services managed by local governments that have not satisfied the
community, unable to compete with services managed by local governments. private party.
Norman Flyn (2017) suggests that public services managed by the government in a hierarchical
manner tend to be characterized by over-bureaucratic, bloated, wasteful, and under-performing
(Abbas & Sadat, 2020).
Ratminto (2010) said another factor that is also very important in the management of public
services is the operation of a service system that is oriented to the interests of the community.
Services can be of very low quality if the system applied is impartial to the interests of service users
(Afrizal & Sahuri, 2012).
Public service management in eradicating extortion practices carried out by the Medan City
Government, in this case under the leadership of Bobby Nasution-Aulia Rachman, was seen from
the planning to evaluation stages as well as effective communication channels in capturing
aspirations, complaints and criticisms from the community for a quick response. effective and
efficient. Bureaucratic reforms carried out as a quick form of Bobby responded to the residents'
complaints. The Medan city government through the figure of Bobby Nasution-Aulia Rachman
has good communication skills with residents and dares to go directly to the field, be it morning,
afternoon or night.
Bobby Nasution also placed officials in the Medan City Government (Pemkot) through a job
auction and assessment system as an effort to realize bureaucratic reform by implementing Then,
Bobby also reactivated the Saber Extortion Team to be deployed in the public service sector,
licensing, education, procurement of goods and services, and other service sectors. The
coordination between the Medan City Government and the Central Extortion Saber Team is a
concrete step in an effort to make Medan City clean and free from extortion. This step is intended
to show the importance of bureaucratic reform within the Medan City Government so that
progress must be realized if the bureaucratic sector and public service become better.

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This public service management is in line with the exit & voice theory which shows that if
public services do not run well then alternative efforts will definitely open up and this is a potential
gap for illegal levies to occur. Public services that are intentionally created are of poor quality,
starting from the aspect of unclear service information, to the aspect of speed in terms of service
matters which are often without certainty, the gap has been closed by the Medan City
Government. Utilization of information technology and digitization suppresses the process of
direct interaction between service providers, in this case the state civil apparatus and users, namely
the community, which has been minimized to close the gap for illegal levy transactions. The
development of information technology can be utilized by the government to improve public
services from the government to the community through easier access to information and more
efficient and transparent management of government activities (Nurkholis et al., 2021). Digitalbased services ensure more objectivity, transparency, and accountability, leakage of funds that
causes state losses can be prevented.
The implementation of public service management will certainly not be able to run well
without preparing a good service management system and the political will of a regional leader.
The role and responsibility of enforcing this system rests with the regional head who upholds the
values of honesty and courage to eradicate extortion practices in his area. The Medan City
Government currently in the implementation evaluation aspect is also implementing concrete
steps by conducting field inspections to listen to the aspirations of the community directly in the
form of complaints and checking confirmations of suspected extortion perpetrators in their ranks.
The challenge in eradicating extortion in the city of Medan is that there are still many service
officers who work with a mentality that leads only to fulfill orders from superiors, implementation
instructions, technical instructions, and quasi-routines. There should no longer be such an
understanding, it is obligatory to provide the ability, willingness, and spirit of competence to
develop oneself and lead to a work mentality, which works creatively, dynamically, always wants
to advance and achieve the highest achievement as found in other studies (Albertus & Hutasoit,
2020).
4.

CONCLUSIOON
Public service reform begins with planning for service governance that is based on openness
and supports the achievement of excellent service, implementation monitoring activities,
continuous evaluation, and improvements that need to be made by the Medan City Government
to become better. The system of rewards and sanctions should be carried out continuously and
consistently in the context of enforcing public service reforms. It is mandatory to make public
services as a first step to realizing good governance in responding to the hopes and desires of the
community in getting access to good public services.
The community as service recipients as well as those who have the authority to monitor the
public service system should be able to be critical of the services provided by service officers, it is
also necessary to have community loyalty to be actively involved in the process of providing public
services, namely by giving suggestions and criticism, it is also allowed to evaluate the
implementation of public services.

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