Council okays use of reserve fund for canal work
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
After long debate, the City Council approved on Friday the use of Rp 250 billion (US$27.78 million) of the city's Rp 873.25 billion reserve fund to acquire land for the East Flood Canal project.
Many factions initially rejected the proposal because the fund is set aside for emergency situations. The factions argued the city administration could still find other financial sources.
The Golkar faction changed its stance at the last minute during the deliberation. In its prepared statement circulated by the Council's information center, the faction opposed the use of the fund but changed its stance when delivering its final say.
"We made a new decision in this morning's meeting at 7 a.m. The meeting was also attended by representatives of the executive board of Golkar Party's Jakarta chapter," Golkar councillor Pria Ramadhan said without elaborating.
Golkar had said in its written statement, which was not read at the meeting, that the administration should revise its programs to be funded with the reserve fund.
"The administration must revise its priority programs to be financed with the reserve fund because we still find duplication in budget allocations," it said.
The Justice and Prosperous Party (PKS) faction spokesman Nurmansyah Lubis said his faction finally agreed to the use of the fund for the land acquisition.
With such a specific project, he added, the council could closely monitor the use of the money. He also said that the project was significant as it would ease flooding in the eastern part of the city.
Nurmansyah reminded the administration to return the money to the fund if it failed to spend it.
In the 2005 City Development Plan, the administration had proposed the use of the reserve fund for three priority programs: The construction of the canal, an incineration plant and the busway facility.
However, the administration asked that the fund only be used for the canal project.
The reserve fund will be included in the Rp 13.93 trillion city budget next year.
The administration has proposed the allocation of Rp 450 billion from the 2005 budget to acquire 62 hectares of land. This year, it only used Rp 30 billion of Rp 150 billion allocated for land acquisition.
The proposed canal will be built from Cipinang, East Jakarta, to Marunda in North Jakarta. The city has so far acquired only some 36.67 hectares of the 401 hectares of land needed for the project, which is expected to be completed in 2007.
Based on a report by the City Public Works Agency, the canal will protect one fifth of Jakarta's 650 square-kilometer territory from flooding, including Kelapa Gading, Pulo Mas, Cipinang, Semper, Pondok Kelapa and Kebon Nanas.