As the 2019 to 2024 administration drew to a close, Indonesia's Ministry of Public Works and Housing (PUPR) set out its infrastructure budget ceilings for the past ten years. On 5 October 2024 the ministry's spokesperson gave the ceilings for the first period, 2015 to 2019, and the second, 2020 to 2024, in four fields: water resources Rp171.98 trillion and Rp236.78 trillion, highways Rp246.75 trillion and Rp324.64 trillion, human settlements Rp96.35 trillion and Rp126.93 trillion, and housing Rp45.04 trillion and Rp49.73 trillion (Republika, 2024b). On 18 October 2024 the same spokesperson summed it up as almost Rp1,300 trillion over ten years (Susanto, 2024).
The physical outputs were itemised too: 53 of the 61 dams under construction completed, 5,999 km of new roads, 125,904 metres of bridges, 583 suspension bridges and 27,673 metres of flyovers or underpasses. In housing, the ministry recorded 10.2 million homes under the One Million Homes Programme (Republika, 2024b). This article reads those figures from an angle that rarely gets attention: the safety of the people who built them.
Data Sources
We use three groups of sources. First, the ministry's statements on budgets and outputs as carried by national media (Republika, 2024b; Susanto, 2024). Second, 2023 work accident figures quoted in the media: manpower ministry data reported by ANTARA (Habibah, 2024) and BPJS Ketenagakerjaan data reported by Republika (Republika, 2024a). Third, the regulations that determine how construction workers are registered and how safety costs are budgeted.
What the Numbers Show
Adding up the four fields gives about Rp560.12 trillion for the first period and Rp738.08 trillion for the second, about Rp1,298 trillion in total, consistent with the ministry's figure of almost Rp1,300 trillion (Republika, 2024b; Susanto, 2024). The second period's ceiling is about 32 percent larger than the first. Highways took the largest share, about 44 percent of the four fields, followed by water resources at about 31 percent. These calculations are our own, based on the released figures.
The safety side is much less clear. Manpower ministry data recorded 370,747 work accident cases in 2023, of which about 2,965, or about 0.8 percent, came from participants in the construction services scheme (Habibah, 2024). A Republika article cited BPJS Ketenagakerjaan data of 360,635 cases in 2023, and a photo caption in the same article said construction accounted for 32 percent of all work accidents according to BPJS data (Republika, 2024a).
How to Read Them
First, a budget ceiling is not spending. The Rp1,298 trillion is an allocation, not money actually disbursed, and the statements do not say how much went into physical work on site.
Second, 0.8 percent and 32 percent cannot simply be compared. Minister of Manpower Regulation No. 44 of 2015 sets up the work accident and death benefit scheme for casual, piece-rate and fixed-term workers in construction services. Construction employers must register these workers (Article 2), using a project registration form no later than 14 working days after the work order is issued (Article 3(3)) (Kementerian Ketenagakerjaan [Kemnaker], 2015). In our reading, the construction services category most likely counts only workers registered through this project scheme, while a contractor's permanent staff may be recorded in the ordinary wage-earner segment. The source of the 32 percent figure does not define it. This explanation is our interpretation, not an official BPJS statement.
Third, the two 2023 totals differ by about 10,000 cases, probably because of different sources or extraction dates.
Fourth, there is no denominator. The output statements do not give hours worked on these projects, so an accident rate per hour worked cannot be calculated from the public data we found.
Limits of the Data
We found no public data linking work accidents to project type, contract value or project owner over the same period. All the accident figures above come from news reports quoting institutional data rather than from official tables that can be downloaded, and the OHS compliance audit mentioned by ANTARA's source dates from 2016 in Central Java, with no method described (Habibah, 2024).
Lessons for Owners
Because national data is not detailed enough, project owners have to build their own from the tender stage. Minister of Public Works and Housing Regulation No. 10 of 2021 on construction safety management system guidelines requires the cost of applying the system to be included in the bill of quantities according to the controls in the construction safety plan (Kementerian Pekerjaan Umum dan Perumahan Rakyat [Kementerian PUPR], 2021). In our view owners should also ask every contractor and subcontractor for proof of project registration in the construction social security scheme, records of hours worked, and accident and near-miss reports, and then review them regularly.
How Nusa Safety Helps
Nusa Safety can help project owners set up CSMS and contractor prequalification, assess how it works in practice through an HSE and CSMS audit, and organise contractor safety reporting through HSE digitalisation.
This article is general information and not legal or professional advice for any specific case.
References
- Habibah, A. F. (2024, July 1). DPW PAKKI Jatim dorong manajemen keselamatan kerja konstruksi [East Java PAKKI chapter pushes construction safety management]. ANTARA. https://www.antaranews.com/berita/4176663/dpw-pakki-jatim-dorong-manajemen-keselamatan-kerja-konstruksi
- Kementerian Ketenagakerjaan Republik Indonesia. (2015). Peraturan Menteri Ketenagakerjaan Nomor 44 Tahun 2015 tentang Penyelenggaraan Program Jaminan Kecelakaan Kerja dan Jaminan Kematian bagi Pekerja Harian Lepas, Borongan, dan Perjanjian Kerja Waktu Tertentu pada Sektor Usaha Jasa Konstruksi [Minister of Manpower Regulation No. 44 of 2015 on work accident and death benefits for casual, piece-rate and fixed-term workers in construction services]. https://pasal.id/peraturan/permen/permenaker-no-44-tahun-2015
- Kementerian Pekerjaan Umum dan Perumahan Rakyat. (2021). Peraturan Menteri Pekerjaan Umum dan Perumahan Rakyat Nomor 10 Tahun 2021 tentang Pedoman Sistem Manajemen Keselamatan Konstruksi [Minister of Public Works and Housing Regulation No. 10 of 2021 on construction safety management system guidelines]. https://pasal.id/peraturan/permen/permen-pupr-no-10-tahun-2021
- Republika. (2024a, May 1). Tekan kecelakaan kerja lewat pembangunan budaya K3 [Reducing work accidents by building an OHS culture]. Republika Online. https://news.republika.co.id/berita/scswo8488/tekan-kecelakaan-kerja-lewat-pembangunan-budaya-k3
- Republika. (2024b, October 5). 10 tahun pemerintahan Jokowi, ini daftar anggaran infrastruktur yang telah digelontorkan [Ten years of the Jokowi government: the infrastructure budgets allocated]. Republika Online. https://ekonomi.republika.co.id/berita/skvhf5490/
- Susanto, V. Y. (2024, October 18). 10 tahun pemerintahan Jokowi, anggaran infrastruktur PUPR capai Rp 1.300 triliun [Ten years of the Jokowi government: PUPR infrastructure budget reaches Rp1,300 trillion]. Kontan.co.id. https://nasional.kontan.co.id/news/10-tahun-pemerintahan-jokowi-anggaran-infrastruktur-pupr-capai-rp-1300-triliun
