City holds closed-door meeting on 2004 budget

Bambang Nurbianto and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration and the city council debated the draft 2004 city budget behind closed doors on Tuesday, sparking immediate criticism of collusion and corruption.

Councillor Amarullah Asbah of the Golkar party said the meeting was held in secret because the agenda only focused on preliminary deliberations.

"According to council internal regulations, closed-door meetings are allowed."

The administration wants to spend Rp 12.16 trillion (US$1.43 billion) in 2004, up 5 percent on the 2003 budget.

The council is yet to publicly release the budget proposal.

Budget Critics Forum (Fitra) member Laode Ida told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that the meeting violated Minister of Home Affairs regulation No. 29/2002, which stipulates a public hearing before its deliberation.

"We've got a copy of the budget proposal last Thursday and we found many irregularities and violations of government regulations No. 110/2000 on budget. The proposal should not be endorsed."

The Alliance of Jakarta Finance Watchdogs, of whom Fitra is a member, had assessed the budget proposal and found that the council speaker and three deputy speakers will be paid Rp 2.13 billion in allowance in one year, while the 2000 regulation limits such allowances to Rp 39 million.

The 85 councillors, including the speakers, would also enjoy a total of Rp 2.46 billion in attendance allowances. Regulations say the allowance is only Rp 1.48 billion each annually.

The budget proposal also allocates Rp 14.8 billion for political parties despite the fact they also receive financial aid from the state.

"If the lavish budget proposal was trimmed, we can save Rp 441.79 billion and the government can distribute the money to the poor in the capital," Laode Ida said.

Tuesday's meeting will be followed by a plenary session on Friday, which is expected to be open to the public. The plenary session agenda will hear comments from the council.

The approval of the budget proposal will be given in the next meeting on Dec. 30, which is also said to be open to the public.

In between, a closed-door meeting of the council steering committee, tasked to summarize the results of the meetings, will be held on Dec. 22.