Council to endorse Rp 17t budget
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After two weeks of delays due to tough deliberations over the city administration's big spending earmarked in the 2006 budget, the City Council is ready to pass the draft budget on Wednesday nearly unchanged.
Totaling Rp 17.97 trillion (some US$1.79 billion), or 27 percent higher than this year's Rp 14.20 trillion, the final figure is Rp 287 billion higher than proposed in the administration's original draft submitted earlier this month.
Council speaker Ade Surapriatna admitted that the council eventually bowed to the wishes of the city administration over several burning issues like "transfer funds" and public service improvement in districts and subdistricts.
"We finally agreed on the issues with several footnotes that must come to the attention of the city administration," Ade told journalists on Tuesday.
In the draft budget deliberation, Council's Commission A for legal and administrative affairs rejected the allocation of Rp 1.2 trillion for "transfer funds" -- money managed by the city secretary for organizations outside of the administration.
Citing a corruption case in the Jakarta General Elections Commissions, Commission A chairman Ahmad Suaidy said that the administration failed to control the use of the funds by selected organizations, including the elections body.
The Commission A initially also rejected the allocation of Rp 1.7 billion for public service improvement in each of the 267 subdistricts and Rp 4 billion in each of the 44 districts, arguing that the administration had not evaluated pilot projects carried out this year.
Although the argument is reasonable, the Council eventually approved the disbursement of the money with a requirement that Governor Sutiyoso closely monitor the use of the funds.
"The possible unpreparedness of districts and subdistricts in carrying out the programs have become a concern of many councillors. Therefore, we demand that the Governor control the funds," Ade added.
The only significant achievement of the councillors during the budget deliberations was to demand free schooling for students in all state elementary and junior high schools across the city.
On that issue, they managed to convince the administration to increase the allocation for the educational sector from Rp 3.79 trillion in the original draft budget to Rp 3.89 trillion in the final draft budget.
Next year, the administration will still focus on the development of urban infrastructure by allocating some Rp 4.58 trillion for various projects, including transportation, flood mitigation and the construction of low-cost apartments for the poor.