'Budget excess reveals inefficiency'

'Budget excess reveals inefficiency'

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

More than Rp 2 trillion of unspent money from the Jakarta city
administration's budget, which accounts for about 20 percent of
the total budget of Rp 9.7 trillion, has shown Governor Sutiyoso
and his administration to be a failure in managing city
development, an expert said on Tuesday.

"It's ridiculous. Any figure over 10 percent of planned budget
allocations that is not spent is considered very poor," architect
and urban planner Marco Kusumawijaya told The Jakarta Post on
Tuesday.

The city administration announced on Monday that the 2003 City
Budget would amount to Rp 10.6 trillion in which Rp 2.1 trillion
was unused funds from the 2002 budget.

"They did not plan well in their budget. It has proven that
the administration is very ineffective," he said. He was
disappointed that the huge fund could not be used for the public
interest amid such difficulties resulting from the ongoing
economic crisis, which was still affecting the majority of city
residents.

An inability of city leaders to efficiently distinguish who
was in a decision-making role with regard to the regional
autonomy laws was also blamed for the mess.

"There was a constant tug-of-war between city officials and
the city councillors which resulted in the funds not being
disbursed or allocated (for development in the city)," he said.

He questioned the ability of the administration to foresee and
deal with such problems because it occurred every year. "The
problem (of unused funds) could be anticipated if the
administration has a good plan," he said.

The city administration officials often claimed that the
unspent money was due to the fact that the council was usually
late in approving the budget.

The late budget approval slows down the bidding process of
projects, resulting in less time in the year to finalize them and
they have to carry over to the next year's budget.

Separately, city administration spokesman Muhayat revealed
that the Rp 2.1 trillion would become part of the city's "income"
for this year, and be placed in next year's budget.

"Since the 2002 budget has been set at Rp 9.7 trillion, while
our tax revenue has been raised this year, we'll book it for next
year's budget," Muhayat said.

The administration predicted it could receive income of Rp 4.5
trillion next year or an increase of about 25 percent of this
year's tax income of Rp 4 trillion. The city's income was mostly
contributed by vehicle taxes, land and property taxes, hotels,
restaurants and entertainment center taxes. It also predicted
that it would receive Rp 4 trillion as the general allocation
fund (DAU) from the central government.

Besides the increase in income, Muhayat admitted that more
than 80 percent of this year's projects could not be realized,
mainly due to high prices of land appropriation for the projects,
which they were unable to foresee when preparing the budget.

"It's about 13 percent of the budget and mainly because of the
land appropriation which could not be realized," he said.

Some land appropriation projects for the East Flood Canal and
the public parks could not be realized as the owners of the land
demanded higher than market value.

According to the government regulation, the land appropriation
should be based on the tax value which is set at only 80 percent
of their market prices. The city officials, by law, can not buy
land at a higher price than that.