This study was conducted by inding that there were inconsistencies and uncorrelated data from the government score-based report about Village Fund, and the public perception of the village fund. This research observes relevance of numbers using the Impact Assessment concepts. This research can act as a useful insight for the governments, researchers and societies to evaluate the commitment of the government to build Indonesia from village. By using descriptive quantitative research method, this paper critically summarises the government report of the Village Fund by contrasted the priorities target of the fund. From the assessment, it was found that the development of the village facilities, infrastructure, and community empowerment program currently increased, but the village fund still has a problem with its equalisation and utilisation of the fund. In conclusion, the achievement numbers of the village fund do not have any correlation with the poverty reduction, because there are lack of equalisation and perception as a mean of utilisation in some sectors. The perception index does not correlate with the satisfaction index in terms of infrastructure development, and the intervention of the village fund does not have a connection with the understanding of people on the use of the fund.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a scale for measuring perceived bureaucratic readiness for smart city initiatives. Design/methodology/approach The present study employs a mixed method approach to achieve its research objectives. An exploratory study, consisting of literature review and qualitative interviews with key informants, was conducted to develop an initial instrument for measuring bureaucratic readiness. An online survey of 40 civil servants involved in smart city programmes in the Yogyakarta City government was then administered to test the instrument’s validity and reliability. Findings Perceived bureaucratic readiness can be measured through four dimensions: commitment of the upper echelons, legal support, information technology resources and governance. Research limitations/implications The proposed scale provides an alternative instrument for measuring perceived bureaucratic readiness for smart city initiatives. However, as data were only derived from one city government, they are relatively small in scope. Future research can be conducted for generalisation by replicating this study in other cities, thereby measuring its effectiveness in other contexts and settings. Practical implications This study not only provides a better understanding of bureaucratic readiness for smart city initiatives, but also proposes an assessment tool as a practical means of assessing bureaucratic readiness. The quantification of readiness is beneficial to putting smart city programmes into practice, as it allows smart city managers to assess the internal bureaucracy’s level of readiness. It also allows managers to mitigate and further policy agendas and thereby improve the bureaucracy’s support for smart city programmes. Originality/value Literature sometimes underestimates the role of bureaucracy in smart city implementation while overly stressing stakeholders, vendors and technology. This paper attempts to contribute to smart city research by reaching beyond the technological perspective and focusing on local government bureaucracy. None of the extant literature provides a scale for measuring bureaucratic readiness. The study thus proposes a systematic way to develop a means of measuring perceived bureaucratic readiness for smart city programmes.

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This study had two formulated objectives. First, this study wanted to evaluate the achievements of the digital transformation process in licensing services to start a business in Pekalongan City, Central Java, Indonesia. Second, this study also expected to identify the factors that influenced the achievement of the digital transformation process in licensing services to start a business in Pekalongan City. This study used qualitative approach to answer the problem formulation through a case study. Data and information were analyzed using chronological time series analysis techniques. The informants of this research were selected through the snowball method. The results of data and information analysis showed that Pekalongan City was at the e-government stage. Three reasons that justified that the achievement was not at the digital government stage. First, users or citizens had not voiced demand in the digital transformation process. Second, the transformation of internal work processes had not yet taken place. Third, there had not been a shared database sharing process between related agencies either within the Pekalongan City government environment or with central government agencies. The analysis also showed that five factors that influenced the process of digital transformation in licensing services to start a business in Pekalongan City, those were: strategic factors, digital cultural factors, leadership factors, human resource capacity factors, and the role factor of central government organizations.

Following the recent changes in laws regarding national identity card for the adherents of indigenous beliefs in Indonesia, this study tries to examine 21 types of regulations to see how freedom of indigenous beliefs is in Indonesia from their adherents’ perspective. This is done through conducting semi-structured, in-depth interviews with three groups of indigenous beliefs in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The types of regulations examined are taken from The Religion and State Project Round 3 by Jonathan Fox of Bar-Ilan University that has been used widely to gather cross-country data on religious freedom. The result of the interviews shows that there are at least four restrictive regulation points, namely on places of worship, surveillance, antireligious campaign and religious education.