Councillors, activists fear misuse of 2004 budget
Councillors, activists fear misuse of 2004 budget
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The City Council plans to approve the 2004 city budget of Rp
12.16 trillion (US$1.43 billion) on Tuesday, but several
councillors and analysts say there is no guarantee that the
budget will be free from irregularities.
Mukhayar, a member of the council's commission D for
development affairs, said on Monday that the commission found
some funding allocations were higher than necessary.
He said, for example, the City Sanitation Agency proposed an
allocation of Rp 42 billion for fees to dispose of garbage at a
waste treatment facility, operated by a private company in
Bojong, Bogor regency.
"After recalculating the allocation, we know that we need only
Rp 28.9 billion for garbage fees," said a councillor from the
Justice Party (PK).
Mukhayar said the calculation was based on an assumption that
the fee was Rp 53,800 per ton, while the waste treatment
facility, with a daily capacity of 1,500 tons, operated everyday
of the year.
He said Commission D also found that duplicate allocations had
been made for an activity at the Bantar Gebang dump in Bekasi
municipality. The sanitation agency and the City Secretariat were
allocated funds for the same activity.
According to Mukhayar, the majority of councillors were not
able to check the proposed draft budget thoroughly; time was
limited and councillors discussed relevant sections only.
"We can't track all possible duplications in the budget," he
said.
Councillor Ali Imran Husein of the United Development Party
(PPP) also complained that, as the draft was hundreds-of-pages
long, it was impossible to check everything in less than a month.
Chairman of the Budget Critic Forum (Fitra), Laode Ida, called
on the City Council to delay approving the budget, so that
councillors would have more time to work on it, and the public
greater access to the final draft.
He said many allocations of funds for planned programs or
activities were unrealistic.
He revealed that the funds allocated for the governor's
administrative costs next year reached Rp 2.87 billion, and for
the deputy governor, Rp 2.73 billion. While the health budgets
for the two top-officials were Rp 60 million each.
"There is no detailed explanation of how these allocations
will be used. Therefore, there is potential for corruption," he
said.
Laode also criticized both councillors and officials for
limiting public access to the budget, as discussions were mostly
held behind closed doors. Such a mechanism had sparked
speculation of possible corruption and collusion among them.
Fitra has invited the public to demonstrate against the budget
at the City Council building on Tuesday.