Council factions question budget allocations by city administration

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city council questioned on Thursday the city administration's claim to have provided a greater allocation for general public spending under the 2002 draft city budget.

In their general overview of the draft budget, the major Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and National Mandate Party (PAN) factions unanimously demanded that the administration elaborate on the exact amounts allocated respectively to general public spending and spending on the city's public servants.

PAN doubted the administration's claim that the lion's share of the draft budget was devoted to general public spending, the faction said in a statement read out by Wasilah Sutrisno.

According to PAN, the major share of the 2002 budget was, in fact, devoted to city operational spending, rather than general public spending.

PAN said that operational spending accounted for 78 percent of the total budget of Rp 8.94 trillion, leaving only 22 percent for general public expenditure.

PAN pointed out that in the 2002 budget, routine spending was posted at Rp 5.56 trillion, or 63 percent of the total budget, while development spending was posted at Rp 3.29 trillion, or 37 percent of the total budget.

In his remarks to the council on Monday when presenting the draft budget, Governor Sutiyoso said that his administration planned to boost the popular economy, hard hit by the prolonged economic crisis.

"General public spending will account for 61 percent of total development spending, while the remaining 39 percent will go on operational spending," he said earlier.

This means that the administration is once again set to take a chunk out of the development budget to its running costs.

The PDI-P also questioned the drastic changes made by the administration to the draft 2002 budget, in which the allocation for general public spending rose significantly to 62 percent of the total budget from only 40 percent previously.

According to the PDI-P, many allocations in the draft budget needed to be specifically and transparently defined in formats that clearly indicated which funds were intended for the operational spending and which were destined for general public spending as lack of clarity could result in corruption.

"Our faction will restlessly press for the executive to be serious about eradicating all forms of corruption, collusion, and nepotism ...," it said in a statement read out by Totok Ismunandar.

The faction also criticized the city administration's handling of social problems in urban areas. The efforts to resolve these problems, such as the eviction of squatters and forcible removal of street vendors, are not only fruitless, but also a waste of funds, according to the faction.