The Specific Allocation Fund (Dak): Mechanisms and Uses

Research team smeru: syaikhu usman, m. sulton mawardi, adri poesoro, asep suryahadi griffith university: charles sampford translator: kate weatherley editor: budhi adrianto abstract this study aims to analyze the management of the specific allocation fund (dak). the three largest dak-recipient sectors are the focus of the study: education, health, and roads infrastructure. the study sample areas are four districts. this paper was compiled based on the results of in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with various stakeholders as well as analysis of dak policy and secondary data. the main objective of dak is to reduce interregional inequalities in public services. we came across policies in dire need of national uniformity but that still allow variation on some aspects. conversely, we found some enforced national uniformity in policies that should have provided rooms for variations to accommodate regional specific conditions. in practice, regional governments have become passive recipients of dak grants. the attitudes of regional government towards the dak allocation process indicate a general feeling that the central government is not transparent. furthermore, it is evident that coordination and communication surrounding dak management between agencies are still limited. based on the above findings, we recommend a new paradigm where the central government is suggested to decentralize the authority for the allocation, coordination, and monitoring of district/city use of dak to provincial governments. keywords: specific allocation fund, education, health, roads infrastructure, new paradig

Twisting the arm: structural constraints in bicyclic expanded-ring N-heterocyclic carbenes

A series of diaryl, mono-aryl/alkyl and dialkyl mono- and bicyclic expanded-ring N-heterocyclic carbenes (ER-NHCs) have been prepared and their complexation to Au(I) investigated through the structural analysis of fifteen Au(NHC)X and/or [Au(NHC)2]X complexes. The substituted diaryl 7-NHCs are the most sterically encumbered with large buried volume (%VB) values of 40–50% with the less flexible six-membered analogues having %VB values at least 5% smaller. Although the bicyclic systems containing fused 6- and 7-membered rings (6,7-NHCs) are constrained with relatively acute NCN bond angles, they have the largest %VB values of the dialkyl derivatives reported here, a feature related to the fixed conformation of the heterocyclic rings and the compressional effect of a pre-set methyl substituent

'Education, education, education' : legal, moral and clinical

This article brings together Professor Donald Nicolson's intellectual interest in professional legal ethics and his long-standing involvement with law clinics both as an advisor at the University of Cape Town and Director of the University of Bristol Law Clinic and the University of Strathclyde Law Clinic. In this article he looks at how legal education may help start this process of character development, arguing that the best means is through student involvement in voluntary law clinics. And here he builds upon his recent article which argues for voluntary, community service oriented law clinics over those which emphasise the education of students

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This article provides an assessment and critique of the National Integrity System approach and methodology, informed by the experience of conducting an NIS review in Cambodia. It explores four key issues that potentially undermine the relevance and value of NIS reports for developing democracies: the narrowly conceived institutional approach underpinning the NIS methodology; the insufficient appreciation of cultural distinctiveness; a failure properly to conceptualise and articulate the very notion of ‘integrity’; and an over emphasis on compliance-based approaches to combating corruption at the expense of the positive promotion of integrity. The article seeks to offer some pointers to how the NIS approach could be adapted to broaden its conceptualisation of institutions and integrity, and thereby provide reports that are more theoretically informed as well as being more constructive and actionable