City Councillors slam Sutiyoso's 2006 programs

City Councillors slam Sutiyoso's 2006 programs

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

City councillors said on Friday that many of Jakarta governor
Sutiyoso's programs for next year failed to incorporate
performance indicators and yardsticks to evaluate whether or not
they were successful.

Ben V.B. Sitompul of the Golkar Party faction said during a
plenary session to voice final comments on Sutiyoso's 2006
programs on Friday that many of them were simply "non-
measurable".

"In fact, every program designed by the administration must be
complemented with performance indicators so that their
implementation and outcomes can be evaluated transparently and
accountably," Ben said.

Sutiyoso presented his programs to the councillors in early
October.

The governor may not necessarily heed the councillors' views,
but his programs are expected to be included in the 2006 budget,
which Sutiyoso has yet to submit to the City Council for
deliberation.

Ben pointed out that Sutiyoso's priority programs, like the
development of the East Flood Canal, busways, low-cost apartments,
waste treatment plants, port facilities, overpasses and
underpasses, a Mass Rapid Transit system and a replanting
program, were among those that lacked performance indicators.

Muhammad Arifin of the Prosperous Justice Party faction
expressed a similar view to Ben's, and urged the administration
to give time-bound targets so that the public could help monitor
the implementation of the programs.

"The administration also needs to combine similar programs in
order to make budgetary spending more efficient," Arifin said.

As an example, he pointed to the budget allocations for the
different city agencies and bureaus for the drafting of bylaws,
which could all be covered by a single budget allocation to the
Jakarta Legal Bureau.

"We would also advise the administration to scrap some
programs we think will be ineffective, like the native Jakarta
Abang None pageant at the municipal level, as well as other
contests, like the singing bird contest, choir contest for women
members of the Family Welfare Movement (PKK), etc.," he said.

He also underlined that the administration should improve the
planning of priority programs to avoid delays.

Syamsidar Siregar of the National Mandate Party faction also
highlighted the city administration's poor record in planning,
which he said had hampered the development of new busway
corridors linking Pulogadung in East Jakarta to Harmoni in
Central Jakarta and from Harmoni to Kalideres in West Jakarta.

"We have heard that project progress as of October this year
only amounted to 40 percent. Unfortunately, the administration is
pressing ahead with completing the projects before the end of this
year. We are afraid this will affect the quality of the
projects," Syamsidar said.

Sutiyoso refrained from commenting on the councillors'
criticism that his programs for next year lacked performance
indicators.

Instead, he focused on the city councillors' criticisms that
some of his major development programs for 2005 had become bogged
down.

The governor blamed the slow progress on the protracted
deliberations by the councillors before approving the city
budget.

The city's 2005 budget was endorsed only in March, prompting
Sutiyoso to work on the 2004 budget for the first two months of
the year.

Aside from the busway projects, other projects that saw delays
were the monorail project, MRT, waste treatment plants, inner
city highways, the Jakarta New Port and the East Flood Canal.