City holds closed-door meeting on 2004 budget

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.