During her latest mission to Indonesia in July, SSR expert Anne Tahapary visited the Indonesian Prosecutorial Training Centre (Badiklat Kejaksaan / PTC) and the Attorney General Office (AGO). As part of the Judicial Sector Support Program (JSSP), the mission focused on carrying out a quick diagnostic assessment at the PTC, similar to the one already conducted at the Indonesian Judicial Training Centre. It included interviews with key officials, focus group discussions with operational staff and direct observation of trainings delivered at the PTC.
The Prosecutorial Training Centre provides initial training for candidate prosecutors, as well as in-service training for prosecutors in Indonesia. With 2 training facilities and 70 staff, it trains approximately 3.500 persons per year. Most trainers are retired prosecutors and external to the PTC. Prosecutorial training is delivered in Indonesia also through six other training centres (Sentra Diklat). These are financed through the PTC, but their teaching programs are set by the heads of the corresponding provincial attorney offices (Kajati). PTC Secretary Joko Subagyo indicated that there is an ongoing process of restructuring these centres to improve the standard training quality. The Prosecutorial Training Centre itself has also been undergoing reforms in recent years (such as becoming a first-echelon unit in 2012). Its current challenges include the nature of responsibility to and dependence on the AGO head office and the frequent rotation of PTC management staff.
To learn about the processes at the PTC, Anne Tapahary met with staff of the Technical and Functional Training Centre (Pusdiklat Teknis Fungsional / TFTC). This unit is responsible for the building of technical or functional skills, including legal knowledge and prosecutorial skills for prosecutors in Indonesia. Discussions with TFTC staff provided information about how a training module is developed, who is involved in that process, what qualifications are required, what budget and facilities can be used, and how tasks are distributed among staff.
Next on the mission agenda was attending classes of the ongoing initial training programme (PPPJ) at the PTC. The PPPJ is organised twice a year with 600 candidates in total. During the mission four different “legal remedies” classes were available for visiting, each attended by about 40 trainees (plans are to reduce the number of participants per class in the future).
This was an interesting opportunity to compare the trainings methods used in four different classes, where it became obvious that personal teaching styles of trainers play an important role in the absence of standard teaching methods (similarly to what was previously encountered at the Judicial Training Centre. Four different training styles could be encountered in one day: (1) a lecturer; (2) a storyteller; (3) a single speaker; and (4) a coach. The latter appeared to be the most participative style of teaching, in which the trainer invited all the trainees to actively share their opinions.
The mission also included a visit to the AGO head office and a meeting with Bambang Waluyo, the Deputy Head of the Advancement Unit (Jaksa Agung Muda Pembinaan / JAMBIN). The PTC used to be a unit under the supervision of JAMBIN before it was promoted as a first-echelon unit. Current challenges of the PTC are perceived as echoes of its past organisation (quality of trainers, budget allocation, quality standards etc.).
Two units of the AGO head office are closely related to the work of the PTC: the planning bureau (regarding the use of resources) and the personnel bureau (regarding the selection of trainees).
The end of the mission included talks with the local consultants who will contribute to finalising the assessment report. Discussions on the assessment reports are planned to take place with the AGO and Supreme Court leadership in October this year, as a next step in the first component of the JSSP.