Budget proposal draws criticism

Budget proposal draws criticism

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

Councillors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
criticized the Tangerang regency election committee (Panlih) for
marking up a budget proposal to finance the regency election next
March.

After a heated debate, the election committee, chaired by
Dadang Kartasamita, who is also the regency legislative council
speaker, agreed on Monday to propose Rp 2 billion to fund the
election. They will soon present the budget proposal to the
regency administration.

However, many of the committee members have reportedly opposed
the budget plan, saying that it is too much for a regency
election.

According to Dadang, the election funding will be taken from
the administration's 2003 budget (RAPBD).

He said that Rp 2 billion was a relatively small amount as it
was only 0.28 percent of the regency administration's 2003
budget, which amounts to Rp 830 billion.

"Since the election committee must work for six months, I
think the proposed election budget is correct," he said, adding
that the regency election in several other regencies required
more than Rp 2 billion.

He said, however, that the election fund was not final as the
committee was still discussing it and it would later be subject
to the approval of the council's budget committee.

Separately, Ibnu Jandi of Lembaga Kajian Publik, a non-
governmental organization dealing with public policy studies,
said that the proposed election budget was excessive, as the
actual cost of the election would be no more than Rp 500 million.

"This amount is more than enough. The council has its own
budget for committee meetings," Jandi told The Jakarta Post on
Wednesday.