Council approves revised budget
Council approves revised budget
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After admitting the administration performed poorly in the first
half of the year, the City Council approved a revised 2003 city
budget of Rp 11.563 trillion (US$1.3 billion) on Monday.
All 11 of the council's factions, who earlier criticized the
administration for spending less than 25 percent of the budget in
the first semester of this year, endorsed a budget increase of Rp
576.942 billion.
The spokesman for the United Development Party (PP) faction,
Arifuddin Halking, said all of the city's agencies had to improve
their performance after only making use of 25 percent of the
budget allocation in the first semester.
"The PPP faction is worried by the meager spending, as it
could have a negative impact on the realization of the budget in
the second semester," said Arifuddin during the council's plenary
session.
Dani Anwar of the Justice Party faction expressed particular
concern that just 20 percent of the money allocated for
environmental programs had been spent.
"We are very concerned by this because it could cause budget
leakage in the remaining term, which is only about four months
long.
"So we ask the administration to be careful in spending the
money and to avoid any kind of KKN," he said, using the acronym
for corruption, collusion and nepotism.
With so much of the budget left unspent last semester, city
officials could be tempted to increase spending in the current
semester without proper prudence.
The revised budget, an increase from the Rp 10.9 trillion
budget passed in January, runs a deficit of Rp 2.062 trillion.
The budget calls for Rp 11.563 trillion in public and routine
spending, while it lists the city's revenue at Rp 9.49 trillion.
This deficit will be covered by last year's budget surplus of
Rp 2.062 trillion.
Much of the Rp 9.49 trillion in revenue will come from taxes
on vehicles, hotels and restaurants, as well as outdoor
advertisements. The dozens of city-owned account for less than 10
percent of the revenue.
The approved budget contains several controversial
allocations, including the Rp 9.6 billion for overseas trips by
councillors.
Urban development experts have criticized the administration
for proposing an increase in the budget despite its failure to
make proper use of the budget in the first semester of the year.
The critics also said it was regrettable the budget was
deliberated in closed-door sessions between city officials and
councillors, with no public participation.
They also said it was deplorable the councillors allocated Rp
9.6 billion to finance their overseas visits while at the same
time cutting the budget for the fire department from Rp 201.5
billion to Rp 184.3 billion.
2003 revised budget
A. Revenue
1. Regional income Rp 4,928,704,552,000
(Addition) Rp 266,977,810,000
2. Central government-city
shared fund Rp 4,557,962,162,000
(Addition) Rp 296,324,331,000
3. Other official income Rp -
(Addition) Rp 3,231,246,000
-----------------------------------------------------------
Total Rp 9,489,897,960,000
(Addition) Rp 566,533,387,000
B. Expenditures
1. General administrative
expenditures Rp 3,616,956,636,000
(Addition) Rp 206,197,140,352
2. Operational, maintenance,
public infrastructure
expenditures Rp 4,199,606,301,523
(Addition) Rp 436,691,623,775
3. Capital expenditures Rp 3,099,478,149,221
(Addition) Rp 176,837,228,000
4. Transfer expenditures Rp 555,147,621,000
(Addition) Rp 152,053,884,000
5. Extraordinary expenditures Rp 91,740,122,404
(Addition) Rp 17,557,117,577
-----------------------------------------------------------
Total Rp 11,562,928,830,150
(Addition) Rp 576,942,713,150
Source: 2003 Revised City Budget