Council to endorse Rp 17t budget
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.