Council approves Rp 14t budget

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Although rejected by two factions, the City Council on Thursday finally approved the Rp 14 trillion (US$1.5 billion) budget for 2005 after the Jakarta administration pledged to make periodic reports about the use of the money.

The Democratic Party and the Reform Awakening Party forced Governor Sutiyoso to agree to accept the condition that councillors be kept posted on the progress of a number of the city's so-called prioritized programs.

"The administration has agreed to report the progress of those programs every two months so that the council can closely monitor their implementation," Denny Talloga of the Democratic faction told The Jakarta Post after the approval.

The city allocated Rp 2.82 trillion to finance its prioritized programs that include the construction of the East Flood Canal, two busway corridors, school buildings, waste treatment plants, as well as river maintenance, reforestation, and improvements in teachers' welfare.

The administration managed to pass its Rp 14 trillion budget of which Rp 6.78 trillion is derived from taxes, Rp 5.39 trillion from revenue sharing with the central government, and Rp 1.4 trillion from unspent funds from last year's budget.

The original figure for the proposed budget stated in the draft submitted to the city council last month was Rp 13.93 trillion. The 2004 budget was Rp 12.6 trillion.

The administration later realized that it had a surplus in tax revenue.

In the final statement from the Reform Awakening Party, faction chairman Mansur Syaerozi underlined the need to cut spending in several programs, which the faction considered inefficient.

"We could reduce the budget of Rp 3 trillion for additional welfare funds for officials, for example," Mansur told the press on the sidelines of the plenary session.

"If we can reduce such inefficiency in the budget we may be able to acquire all the lands needed for the East Flood Canal project," he said.

The project, which is important to mitigate annual flooding in Greater Jakarta, has long been stalled because of the cost of resuming land from owners.

Democratic Party faction chairman Johny Wenas Polii also questioned reports about the quick revision in this year's unspent funds.

In the first draft, unspent funds in 2004 budget totaled Rp 1.9 trillion.

"We need detailed information on which working units in the administration have been able to meet their targets in 2004," he added.