City budget falls short of serving the public: Critics

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The 2003 city budget, which amounts to Rp 10.98 trillion, will better serve the city administration and council, instead of the general public, critics have said.

This year's budget, which was approved by the council's 11 factions on Friday, increased by about 10 percent from last year's budget, which was Rp 9.7 trillion.

This year's budget also uses different terms, especially for its spending, such as administration spending and public and capital spending, while last year's budget was spent on routine and development expenditures.

Some Rp 3.8 trillion or 36 percent of the budget will be used for general administration spending, including the salaries of the governor, deputy governor, 85 councillors and the administration's 90,000 employees.

The budget has allocated Rp 8 billion for Governor Sutiyoso's salary, Rp 5 billion for Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo and Rp 117 billion for the salaries of the 85 city councillors.

As much as Rp 3.7 trillion or 32 percent of the budget is earmarked for the operation and maintenance of public facilities, such as dump trucks and ambulances. However, some of the money will also go to the salaries of employees involved with the facilities' operation and maintenance.

The budget allocates Rp 2.9 trillion for capital spending, Rp 403 billion for transferred spending and Rp 74 billion for contingency funds.

Transferred spending refers to donations, which are directly transferred to religious organizations.

Overall, this year's budget is not much different from last year's as most of the funding, or about 70 percent, will only be used for administration spending or routine spending, while the remaining 30 percent will go toward capital spending or development spending.

The 10.98 trillion budget, derived mostly through taxes from the public, has set aside funding for solving problems, such as mass transportation and flooding.

The budget has allocated Rp 200 billion for projects to manage flooding, including for the appropriation of part of the land needed for the 23-kilometer-long east flood canal project.

It has also earmarked Rp 83 billion for the controversial busway project, which has been criticized for possibly adding to the traffic jams along Jl. Jend. Sudirman and Jl. MH. Thamrin, Central Jakarta, instead of easing congestion.

The budget also allocates Rp 136 billion for the City Public Order Agency and Rp 27 billion for the purchase of equipment for the city police.

Critics have protested the amount of funding for the Public Order Agency and the police as the budget only allocates Rp 26 billion for the poor.

Critics have also said it was ironic that the Rp 136 billion allocated for public order officers would be used to evict the poor, such as people living along the riverbanks, street vendors and pedicab drivers.

Another irony was cited in the allocation of funding for the salaries of the governor, deputy governor and the city's 85 councillors, which will reach a total of Rp 130 billion, in comparison to the Rp 26 billion earmarked for the city's 1.2 million poor.