City Council approves budget revision with 31% increase
City Council approves budget revision with 31% increase
JAKARTA (JP): The City Council approved on Monday a City
Administration proposal to allocate a 31 percent increase to the
city's 1999/2000 budget of Rp 2.816 trillion (US$391 million).
The budget revision will put the city's current budget at a
total of Rp 3.694 trillion.
Almost 75 percent of the revised budget will be used to
finance the city administration's routine expenditures amounting
to Rp 2.740 trillion, leaving less than Rp 1 trillion for
physical development projects.
The unequal allocation of the revised budget was strongly
opposed by the National Mandate Party (PAN) faction.
"Such an unequal budget distribution indicates that the city
administration programs have yet to touch the fate of the poor,"
said PAN faction spokesman M. Haim Mahadin.
"Therefore, the next 2000/2001 budget should pay more
attention to the improvement of the people's welfare," Haim
added.
The move however, was defended by the Indonesian
Military/National Police (TNI) and Golkar factions.
Gafar Malik of the TNI faction said it was an understandable
move to have an increased budget for the city's routine
expenditures, because it would help deliver the city from the
economic crisis.
"The greater distribution percentage of routine expenditures
is important to sustain city administration services to
residents," he said.
Similarly, Tadjus Sobirin of the Golkar faction said the
greater allocation for routine expenditures was expected to be
able to improve city administration services to the public.
Meanwhile, the Justice Party (PK) faction took notes on the
proportional budget distribution allocated to the governor and
his deputies.
"The governor and his deputies receive Rp 17 billion, while
hospitals receive some Rp 15 billion to Rp 30 billion and the
social welfare sector only Rp 5 million," PK faction spokesman
Dani Anwar said.
Despite disagreements over the budget, all council factions
called on the city administration to improve the performance of
city-owned companies, especially ones which had failed to deliver
a profit.
Most factions also asked the city administration to cancel the
water management agreement between the city-owned tap water
company PAM Jaya and its foreign investors.
"Since the water management agreement was signed in February
last year, there have been no contributions from PAM Jaya.
"Instead, the city administration has had to compensate for
its operational costs to investors. (05)