Civil servants to soon receive back pay: Official

JAKARTA (JP): The city administration announced on Wednesday that it would soon disburse Rp 300 billion (US$3.3 million) representing six-months back pay for its 110,000 civil servants as its revised 2001 city budget was scheduled to be approved on Saturday.

"The revised budget is scheduled to be approved by the City Council on Sept. 15. Soon after that, the back pay will be disbursed," the chief of the city's Finance Office, M. Natsir, said.

Natsir claimed that so far the back pay could not be disbursed due to the limited funds in the current budget, which was based on calculations made in December of last year.

He said that the back pay for the civil servants would be covered by the revised budget, which targeted an increase in revenue of more than Rp 600 billion.

If the budget is approved on Saturday, the revenue targeted would increase from Rp 7.5 trillion to Rp 8.1 trillion this year.

Natsir said that the city budget would also allocate Rp 1.3 trillion for the salaries of the city's 110,000 civil servants this year. This figure included some 30,000 new employees -- including teachers -- who had been transferred from central government departments.

"Although the central government is only contributing Rp 700 billion, we are ready to cover the salaries out of our own budget," he said.

Meanwhile, city administration spokesman Muhayat regretted the complaints by some junior and senior high school teachers who said that their salaries had been docked by the city administration.

Muhayat said that the 30,000 civil servants, including the teachers, who were formerly paid by the central government, were now being paid by the administration.

Besides receiving the same salaries, the new civil servants also received "a monthly welfare allowance" amounting to Rp 350,000 each, he said.

"They should be thankful since as city administration employees, they receive an allowance they did not get before," Muhayat said.

He said that in accordance with the procedures, the allowances had been cut by about 15 percent for income tax, or by about Rp 50,000, and by Rp 10,000 for life assurance.

He said the life assurance provided by state-owned Jiwa Sraya insurance, would accrue to the civil servants after they retired.

"The assurance fund will be returned to them. It seems that they are not familiar with the administration's regulations," he said.

He claimed that even low-ranking civil servants did not object to the salary deductions.

Some new city employees, mostly teachers, complained on Tuesday that their salaries had been cut by the city administration.

The teachers, who flocked in the city's Personnel Office on the sixth floor of City Hall, demanded that their salaries no longer be cut as they had been over the past year.

"Our salaries are small. But they still cut them," one of the teachers, who asked not to be named, said without mentioning the amount of her salary.

The head of the city Education Agency, Masrul Nim, admitted on Tuesday that certain officers in the administration were also cutting the salaries of low-ranking civil servants.

"It might be happening," Masrul said.

Recently, thousands of teachers across the country staged rallies and went on strike to demand six months in back pay. Many provincial administrations admitted that they had difficulties in paying the back pay due to their limited budgets.(jun)