City of Surabaya’s Smart Governance in Public Financial Management

City of Surabaya is one of the leading cities in Indonesia that has successfully implemented the Smart City Initiatives. Innovation in the governance is one element of Smart City that City of Surabaya has advanced. As the reform of local government system mandated by the national government, City of Surabaya realised this mandate by constructing the Government Resource Manage System (GRMS), which integrates the regional financial management from upstream to downstream beraucratic activities and helped the process of planning, organising and controlling the city’s financial activities with an electronic-based system. 

GRMS checked all the criteria of creating good governance which includes public participatory, transparency, public & social service and political strategies. Through GRMS not only the executive government can access information, monitor and evaluate the progress of the city’s programs and activities, the public and the legislative government can also monitor them. GRMS has made financial management easier and more transparent for city authority and has cut the potential act of corruption, collusion and nepotism by up to 80% according to Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Committee (Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi, KPK). 

Reference: Asmorowati, S., Setijaningrum, E., Suaedi, F., & Dewi, Y. F. (2019). Smart Gonvernance in Public Financial Management: A Study of Goverment Resources Managemnet System (GRMS) in the City of Surabaya.