All subdistricts to get public services fund
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city administration is planning to allocate Rp 2 billion (US$210,000) for each of the city's 267 subdistricts in a bid to improve public services in the capital, an official says.
"We plan to implement the public service improvement project in all 267 subdistricts and 44 districts next year," head of city's regional administration bureau Agus Salim Utud said.
The amount, if approved by the City Council, doubles the Rp 1 billion received by 50 subdistricts and 10 districts in the 2005 budget.
Under the current arrangement, each subdistrict is required to submit a project proposal to receive financing. Generally, the proposal covers various areas including sanitation, security, community health and flood mitigation measures.
Many subdistrict heads welcomed the planned increase, saying that the move would particularly improve welfare of subdistrict officials.
"As the frontliners of public services in the city, our income, for example, is much smaller than those officials from the City Treasury, but starting next year our welfare is expected to improve significantly," said a subdistrict head in North Jakarta.
According to Utud, based on an initial evaluation conducted by his office, the pilot projects have not been carried out based on the initial objective to improve public services.
He said many subdistricts used the money for honorariums for officials in the subdistricts, not for projects that directly affected the community.
Utud added that with the fund, a subdistrict could improve sanitation by employing locals in garbage collection, for example. The fund could also be used to maintain drainage systems to prevent floods in their areas.
"Frankly, we have not been happy with the implementation of the pilot projects," he said referring to the 50 subdistricts and 12 districts that received Rp 1 billion in 2005.
He also recorded irregularities in the spending of the funds in several subdistricts. He gave an example that Petamburan subdistrict in Central Jakarta used part of the fund for the maintenance of the subdistrict head's service vehicle.
According to him, a maintenance fund for the service cars of subdistrict heads had been allocated by the municipal administrations.
"We have received reports from each subdistrict about the use of the funds from January to May and we will check each subdistrict. We will also give a warning to those subdistricts where irregularities have occurred," he said.
Chairman of the Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta) Azas Tigor Nainggolan said that the plan to increase public service funds managed by subdistricts was a good idea to improve public services.
But he stressed that a thorough evaluation was needed of the current implementation of the pilot projects before the city administration make a decision to go ahead with the projects in other subdistricts.
"A comprehensive evaluation of such projects is needed. Otherwise, the fund will also be used to enrich officials in subdistricts," he added.
Asked why the administration insisted on going ahead with the project amid rampant irregularities, Utud said that his office had been tasked to continuously monitor the implementation of the pilot projects.
"We will closely monitor the implementation of the projects, noting all weaknesses that need to be improved so that the project will be implemented in accordance with the original objective of improving public services in the subdistricts," he added.