Council okays use of reserve fund for canal work

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.