City budget falls short of serving the public: Critics

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.