City earmarks a pittance for urban renewal

City earmarks a pittance for urban renewal

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite public complaints over the poor condition of urban
infrastructure -- roads, parks, pavements, waste treatment
and transportation systems -- the city administration has
disbursed only a small fraction of the infrastructure funds for
2005.

By the end of the first semester of the 2005 fiscal year,
agencies tasked with maintaining or building infrastructure in
the capital had used only 8.17 percent or Rp 304 billion
(US$30.40 million) of the total allocation of Rp 3.72 trillion
for infrastructure projects across the capital.

"The large amount of development funds loses its relevance if
the city administration uses only a meager part of the allocated
funds," spokesman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
(PDI-P) faction in the City Council Richard Gustaf Edwin Tulis
said on Thursday.

Richard delivered the PDI-P faction's comment on the draft
revision of the city's 2005 budget at a City Council plenary
session on Thursday.

In the draft submitted by Governor Sutiyoso last week, the
administration sought the City Council's approval to raise the
city budget by Rp 248.5 billion. The city budget for 2005 stood
at Rp 14.01 trillion.

Meanwhile, budgetary spending in the first six months of 2005
reached some Rp 3.5 trillion or about 25.25 percent of the total
budget.

Limited progress was observed in projects including the
development of busway corridors II and III from the Pulogadung
bus terminal in East Jakarta to the Kalideres bus terminal in
West Jakarta, the improvement of city drainage and waste
treatment systems and land acquisition for low-cost apartments.

Spokesman for the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) faction
Nurmansyah Lubis said infrastructure had not been improved to the
extent that was budgeted for due to poor planning and
supervision.

Nurmansyah said all delayed projects involved third parties
who had become the partners of the city administration.

"We demand that Governor Sutiyoso explains the reason why only
a small fraction of the allocated funds has been disbursed," said
Nurmansyah.

Considering the limited fund disbursement for infrastructure,
Richard questioned the governor's proposal to seek Rp 50.53
billion in additional funds for several waste management
projects, including land acquisition in Marunda, North Jakarta.

He expressed doubt that the city administration would be able
to spend the money within three and a half months.

Several officials in the city administration said that one of
the main reasons why not much money had been put into fixing up
infrastructure was that many officials were worried about being
implicated in corruption cases.

"Many officials refuse to become project leaders now. They
said they would be happy if there were no development projects
throughout the year," said a high-ranking official in City Hall,
who was speaking on the condition of anonymity.