City health budget down, infrastructure rises
City health budget down, infrastructure rises
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
As a result of a greater focus on infrastructure development, the
budget allocation for the health sector in Jakarta next year will
significantly decline, but the overall budget will increase to Rp
13.83 trillion (US$1.53 billion) from Rp 12.63 trillion this
year.
According to the draft of the 2005 city budget, the health and
education sectors will together receive Rp 3.56 trillion or 25.8
percent of the total budget. This year, the two sectors received
Rp 3.78 trillion, or 30 percent of the budget.
Chairman of the City Council's Commission E for health,
education and people's welfare, Dani Anwar, said on Friday that
the education budget would reach some Rp 2.83 trillion next year
as compared to Rp 2.61 trillion this year.
It means the health budget for next year will decline to Rp
730 billion from Rp 1.17 trillion of the ongoing budget.
This decline seems to run counter to a statement made by the
head of the Jakarta Health Agency, Abdul Chalik Masulili, who had
said that the city would double the allocation for health care
for the poor.
The agency's spokeswoman Evi Zelvino could not explain the
reason for the decline, but did say that most of the divisions
within the agency had not finished revising their respective
budget requirements as of Friday.
"All of the officials are now working overtime to finish their
reports. We will finish our updated reports next Monday. Sorry, I
cannot explain more than that now. The figures on the draft
budget may change," she told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Meanwhile, the infrastructure sector will receive the largest
allocation next year. The spending for that sector will increase
to Rp 3.67 trillion, or 26.5 percent of the total budget from Rp
2.73 trillion this year.
Most of the money for the infrastructure sector would be spent
on what are termed "dedicated programs".
The programs include the construction of busway corridors from
Pulo Gebang in East Jakarta to Kalideres in West Jakarta via the
National Monument (Monas) Park in Central Jakarta, the
construction of the 23-kilometer long East Flood Canal and the
establishment of garbage incineration plants.
The second largest allocation will be for the health and
education sectors, followed by the administrative sector, the
socio-cultural sector, the natural resources and environment
sectors, the legal and public order sectors, the economic sector,
and the population and manpower sectors.
The allocation for the administrative sector will increase to
Rp 3.5 trillion from Rp 3.06 trillion this year because the city
plans to carry out pilot projects for public services in 50
subdistricts and 10 districts.
The subdistricts and districts selected for the pilot
projects, will receive an additional allocation of Rp 1 billion
each.
Budget spending comparisons for 2004 and 2005:
No. Sectors 2004 (Rp billion) % 2005 (Rp billion) %
1. Legal and Public Order 777.83 6.2 641.14 4.6
2. Administrative 3,062.11 24.2 3,500.61 25.3
3. Economy 460.17 3.6 474.89 1.3
4. Education and Health 3,784.45 30 3,564.06 25.8
5. Population and Manpower 167.44 1.3 186.59 1.3
6. Socio-Cultural 985.55 7.8 949.34 6.9
7. Natural Resources and Environment 658.90 5.2 848.02 6.1
8. Infrastructure 2,733.59 21.6 3.673.81 26.5
Source: draft of the 2005 city budget