'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.