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.