Challenge

SMEC was contracted under the Australian Government-funded Indonesia Australia Partnership for Infrastructure (KIAT) to support the first phase of the Government of Indonesia’s (GOI’s) Program Hibah Jalan Daerah (PHJD), an innovative GOI-funded sub-national road maintenance program covering priority tourism areas in 4 provinces and 6 districts in Indonesia.

KIAT is a partnership between the Government of Australia and the Government of Indonesia to support sustainable and inclusive economic growth through improved access to infrastructure for all people in Indonesia. PHJD builds on the experience of a successful Australian-funded pilot trialled from 2013-2022 called the Provincial Road Improvement and Maintenance (PRIM) program. PHJD is a scale-up of the PRIM program that was designed to incentivise regional and district road agencies to improve road maintenance and governance. Conditional grants were used as a financial incentive and increased central government and public scrutiny were the key drivers to achieve the improvement.

Sub-national roads constitute about 91% of the road network in Indonesia and carry about 52% of all vehicle kilometres. The goal of PHJD has been to establish a more effective road maintenance system (for sub-national roads) to improve safety and support Indonesian economic development.

Solution

As the Program Implementation Consultant, SMEC supported capacity-building initiatives and developed a technical framework in collaboration with Government of Indonesia counterparts. SMEC deployed a team of 10 international and over 28 local experts (at various phases of the implementation) who assisted in developing a high-performing road maintenance function that would enable local government units to operate effectively without external support. SMEC also provided technical support for construction works in 10 PHJD phase one regions and one PRIM region in Kabupaten Probolinggo.

New maintenance processes have been embedded into the management culture, underpinned by a management tool called P/KRMS which is used to plan and develop road works programs.From 2019-2022, SMEC undertook the following activates to support PHJD implementation:

• Planning, Programming and Budgeting
• Development of a systems framework for monitoring and evaluation, overseeing the collection of baseline data and preparing reports to inform any corrective actions needed
• Independent verification of outputs including quality of works and public consultation processes across the project lifecycle
• Updated user manuals and guidelines e.g., Province/Kabupaten Road Management System, Project Management, Pavement Design, Road Safety, Routine Maintenance, Reference Unit Costs, Technical Assessments and Verification
• Led socialisation and expansion of the Province/Kabupaten Road Management System
• Assisting in procurement of national consultants for detailed engineering design and supervision of construction. SMEC also assisted with signing of contracts, pre-construction meetings, and training of local government staff, supervision consultants and contractors.
• Embedded Social, Environmental, and Gender Equality and Social Inclusion initiatives across the program.

Impact

A distinctive aspect of the program is the incorporation of an innovative reimbursement mechanism. If local governments adhere to the governance and quality assurance criteria set out in the grant program, they can claim a reimbursement from the central government upon completion and verification of their project.

PHJD has placed a strong emphasis on quality implementation, with supervision consultants supporting a governance framework that now demands quality work to ensure high reimbursement levels. This has proved to be an effective approach to strengthen the design, implementation and monitoring of road maintenance with average reimbursement rates of around 80%.