Regulatory Disharmony in Railway SOE Assignments and Legal Certainty in State-Owned Infrastructure Maintenance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64670/jlpr.v2i3.133Keywords:
Infrastructure Maintenance and Operation (IMO), Legal Certainty and Safety, Public Transport Governance, Railway Infrastructure PolicyAbstract
This study examines regulatory disharmony in the assignment of Indonesian State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to maintain and operate state-owned railway infrastructure through the Infrastructure Maintenance and Operation (IMO) scheme. It also formulates a continuous-assignment model intended to strengthen legal certainty and the continuity of railway infrastructure governance. The study employs normative legal research using statutory, conceptual, and comparative approaches. Primary legal materials include Law No. 23 of 2007 on Railways, Presidential Regulation No. 53 of 2012 as amended by Presidential Regulation No. 33 of 2024, and Law No. 16 of 2025 on SOEs. Secondary materials comprise legal scholarship and recent studies on railway maintenance, reliability, and asset management. The findings reveal inconsistency between the ministerial assignment mechanism under the railway regulations and Article 87C paragraph (2) of Law No. 16 of 2025, which requires special SOE assignments to be determined by the President. The law, however, does not explicitly specify the form of the presidential determination or clarify whether routine IMO activities constitute special assignments. This ambiguity creates uncertainty regarding institutional authority, assignment procedures, funding continuity, and administrative accountability. The study proposes a continuous-assignment model that separates the enduring legal mandate from annual budget approval and performance contracting. Under this model, the President establishes the principal assignment, while technical implementation, supervision, and annual financial administration are delegated to the Ministry of Transportation. The Government Regulation mandated by Article 87C paragraph (6) should clarify assignment classifications, delegation mechanisms, financing arrangements, performance indicators, and review procedures. This model offers a legally coherent framework for ensuring continuous maintenance while preserving fiscal control, auditability, and performance-based accountability.
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