Construction of governor's residence to go ahead
Construction of governor's residence to go ahead
JAKARTA (JP): The planned construction of a Rp 7.2 billion (US$3.2 million) official residence for the governor of Central Java is set to go ahead, despite growing criticism from various quarters.
Governor Soewardi was quoted by the Kompas daily yesterday as saying that the planned house was not at all expensive, given the fact that it would be built on a 1.2-hectare plot of land with construction costs of Rp 1.4 million per square meter.
Two members of the House of Representatives, however, threw their weight behind Central Java councilors in criticizing the plan.
A.M. Saefuddin of the House Commission X for supervision of the state budget and Soenarjo of House Commission II for home affairs agreed said the construction cost was too high for a region which still has many poor people.
"This plan is just not ethical," Saefuddin told The Jakarta Post yesterday. "The priority of our development is too improve the welfare of the people...The planned construction is against that."
"There are many poor villages in the province which need to be developed," Soenarjo said. "It would be better to use some of the money for rural development programs."
Soenarjo added that the National Development Planning Board has set the standard cost for the construction of government offices and buildings at about Rp 600,000 per sq. meter.
Saefuddin called for accountability and effective supervision of provincial administrations' spending of regional budgets.
Soewardi, however, has argued that the planned cost is still lower than that of the construction in 1988 of the building housing the provincial legislative council, which cost Rp 1.1 million per sq. meter.
Soewardi also rejected the criticism that linked the planned construction with the national program for poverty alleviation.
The central government has allocated Rp 100 billion for poverty alleviation program in the province, he said while the Central Java administration has allocated a further Rp 25 billion.
Thus, the cost of building the official residence is less than 5 percent of the total figure, he said.
The governor's house is expected to be completed by 1997. (01)