City slammed for ignoring public on making budget

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have criticized the Jakarta City Administration for attempts to avoid public participation and transparency in its budget process, triggering suspicion that city officials and councillors get more than the public.

The administration has proposed it allocate nearly Rp 1 billion (US$96,000) of its 2002 City Budget on a wardrobe allowance for the governor and city councillors.

The Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) said there was not enough time for the public to criticize the Rp 8.8 trillion (US$880 million) budget as it would be approved by the city council by the end of next month.

The UPC said on Thursday it would ask the Jakarta Administrative Court to delay approval of the budget.

"We demand the delay until the public can have their say on the budget," UPC's community coordinator Edy Suaedy said.

However, Governor Sutiyoso and council chairman Edy Waluyo denied they had discussed the budget secretly, saying that public participation would be needed.

"We would make the budget very transparent for the public," Sutiyoso told reporters at City Hall, adding that spending figures in the budget were only proposed and could still be changed depending on public feedback.

The budget allocates Rp 65 million and Rp 917 million for an official wardrobe allowances for the governor and the 85 city councillors respectively.

It also allocates Rp 176 billion for housing and low-cost apartment development, Rp 94 billion for social welfare affairs, Rp 235 billion for health, Rp 353 billion for education and Rp 65 billion for medium and small-scale enterprises.

Some Rp 5.63 trillion or about 60 percent of the Rp 8.8 trillion budget would be used for routine expenditure while the remaining Rp 3.3 trillion was tagged for development spending.

On Wednesday, the council's budgetary commission chairwoman Anna Rudhiantina said the routine expenditure would reach about Rp 3.34 trillion while public spending would reach Rp 5.5 trillion.

Anna's assumption was made if the budget was based on the new bylaw 8/2001 relating to financial principles which the next budget would not use.

The UPC and other NGOs sued the administration and the Jakarta City Council this year for paying out a small portion of that pledged to disadvantaged people in 2001's Rp 8.1 trillion budget.

The lawsuit was rejected by the Central Jakarta District Court who ruled the case should be handled by the administrative court.

Activists alleged the funds allocated to disadvantaged people never reached its budgeted target.