Councillors agree to scrap costly life insurance fund<\/p>\n
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
In an attempt to deflect mounting public criticism over the
\nproposed 2002 city budget, City Council said Wednesday that it
\nwould ask the city administration to scrap life insurance and
\ntravel fund benefits for councillors.<\/p>\n
Briefing reporters at his office room, City Council head Eko
\nWaluyo said that councillors had agreed to rescind a hefty Rp
\n4.25 billion fund that was proposed to buy life insurance for 85
\ncouncil members.<\/p>\n
"We've agreed to scrap the life insurance from the proposed
\nbudget -- but we cannot drop the travel fund, as we may need it
\nlater; we can only decrease it," Eko said.<\/p>\n
The head of the council's commission C overseeing financial
\nand budgetary affairs, Anna Rudhiantiana, said the Council had
\nagreed to cut the travel fund down to Rp 1.9 billion from a
\ncontroversial total of Rp 11.9 billion.<\/p>\n
The councillors had been repeatedly attacked by the public and
\nnon-governmental organizations for their foreign trips last year,
\nwhich they claimed were for comparative studies but, in fact,
\nturned out to be only for pleasure.<\/p>\n
According to Anna, the councillors had not planned to travel
\nabroad this year.<\/p>\n
The councillors would only travel abroad for "comparative
\nstudies" if the host countries made a commitment to financing
\ntheir trips, she said.<\/p>\n
Despite such goodwill efforts on the part of the councillors,
\nsome people observed that council would not make any corrections
\nto the proposed budget, since they want to enjoy benefits from
\nit.<\/p>\n
Azas Tigor Nainggolan, leader of the Jakarta Residents Forum,
\nwarned on Tuesday that the councillors might approve what he
\ncharacterized as a bizarre budget, as the City Council has
\nallocated more than Rp 102 billion this year -- up, notably, from
\nRp 76 billion last year.<\/p>\n
Wasilah Sutrisno, a councillor from Commission E of Social
\nWelfare, lambasted the proposed budget, saying it was full of
\nirregularities and prone to corruption, as many fund allocations
\nin the budget draft had not been made in the public interest.<\/p>\n
According to Wasilah, unclear stipulation over more than Rp 1
\ntrillion allocated for social improvements, might lend itself to
\nmanipulation.<\/p>\n
Sutiyoso has announced that the administration had planned to
\nincrease the budget by nearly 10 percent, up significantly to Rp
\n8.9 trillion from last year's 8.1 trillion.<\/p>",
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