Consultation Services, Bridge between Private and Government Building the Country

In the context of development, the scope of consultant services starts from the upstream, such as feasibility studies, master plan development, technical planning, and extends to the downstream, which is the selection of products, project implementation including supervision, as well as operation and maintenance.

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Herry added that as an effort to achieve the target of becoming a developed country, the National Long-Term Development Plan (RPJPN) 2025-2045 requires Indonesia to be very active in infrastructure development, in addition to the social and economic development dimensions.

"The need for investment in infrastructure development, which is part of the RPJMN, is very significant. As an illustration, the investment requirement value for the development of infrastructure in the field of Public Works and Housing during the period of 2020-2024 reaches IDR 2.058 trillion," he said.

In detail, the investment value is divided into the water resources development sector amounting to IDR 577 trillion, housing sector IDR 780 trillion, residential sector IDR 128 trillion, and road and bridge sector IDR 573 trillion.

To fulfill these investment needs, Herry continued, the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN) only provides Rp 623 trillion. The remaining Rp 1.435 trillion is covered by private parties, Public-Private Partnerships (KPBU) schemes, and state-owned enterprises (BUMN).

"To be able to fill this investment gap, this is where the role of consultants in national infrastructure development is important. "Consultants must be able to act as a bridge between the government and the private sector," he said.

Legal issues

The Chairman of Inkindo, Erie Heryadi, stated that the association will provide some input regarding construction work for projects funded by the state budget to mitigate Inkindo members from legal issues.

"Education and socialization in the legal field at the beginning of construction work are the most crucial things to prevent construction service providers from getting involved in legal issues at the end of the job or during handover," he said.

Legal loopholes can occur in construction work inspection reports which have a grace period of 60 days.

Infrastructure spending in the national budget in 2024, according to Erie, is estimated to reach Rp 400 trillion. If not careful, consultants risk getting involved in legal cases.

This can happen even if it is unintentional, but consulting service providers in job execution may violate regulations, especially Law Number 18 of 1999 regarding Construction Services.

One of the suggestions given is to involve the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) in conducting a post-audit or examination at the beginning of the project. The consideration, Erie explained, is that legal loopholes can occur in the report of the construction work examination which has a grace period of 60 days. During this period, it is highly possible that there are individuals who may report findings.

"The regulation requires that if a report from the public can still be withdrawn, but if it is a complaint, there must be follow-up and if there is no progress, it will eventually be within the legal domain," he said.

In the same occasion, Assistant Deputy of Disaster Resilience and Technology Utilization in the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Muksin, added that when involved in national development projects, consultants need to take several approaches to mitigate disaster risks.

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"This approach takes the form of a business continuity management system, as well as standardization of the equipment and instruments used," said Muksin.

Business continuity management aims to enable business practitioners to recover more quickly in the event of disruptions or natural disasters. Meanwhile, standard approaches are applied to ensure that disaster management systems and instruments are standardized.

"With good disaster mitigation, it is hoped that strategic projects that have been built have high resilience considering the high cost of construction and the role of the infrastructure facilities as public services," he said.