Councillors get itchy feet, cut fire budget
Councillors get itchy feet, cut fire budget
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
City councillors are reportedly changing an allocation of Rp
11 billion (US$1.2 million), which was earlier set for domestic
trips, to finance their overseas trips.
Chairman of the Justice Party faction at the council confirmed
that many councillors proposed the use of the Rp 11 billion for
domestic and foreign trips.
"But there is still a legal constraint in the change of the
allocation of the fund," said Heryawan, a member of the City
Council Commission E for social welfare, without giving further
details on the weekend.
He revealed that he had prohibited three of his colleagues
from joining a planned overseas trips.
Sources earlier said that several councillors planned to go to
some cities in Middle Eastern Countries and Europe for a
comparative study.
Many have criticized the council for wasting money by
conducting comparative studies which turned out to be junkets.
In 2000, three councillors were declared suspects for taking
travel allowances even though they did not join the overseas trip
which was funded by the city budget and city-owned property firm,
PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol. The case was never been brought to
court.
Due to mounting public criticism, the council decided not to
allocate funds for foreign trips in last year's budget and also
this year's budget.
Meanwhile, the head of the urban division of the Jakarta Legal
Aid Institute Tubagus Haryo Karbyanto criticized the proposal.
"The council could put the fund to better use for the people's
interests, such as for the city fire department," Tubagus told
The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
He said the poor budgetary planning was due to collusion
between administration officials and councillors in deciding its
programs and projects.
Besides proposing the fund for foreign trips, the council also
suggested a cut in the budget for the Jakarta Fire Department
from Rp 211,555 billion (US$24 million) to Rp 184,33 billion.
Separately, Muhamad Suhud of the International NGO Forum on
Indonesian Development (Infid), said that officials from the
administration could not claim the councillors forced them to
agree to certain proposals.
"The question is why do the city administration officials
agree to the councillors' proposals. If the officials are acting
in the interests of the people, they should not bow to
councillors' pressure," he added.
A number of officials in the city administration complained
earlier that they are forced to compromise with councillors in
deciding on projects funded by the city budget so that their
projects could be agreed on by the councillors.
"As you probably know such (collusion) practices are not new,
as we will find difficulties if we reject their proposals. As a
result there are many projects are useless," said an official who
spoke on the condition of anonymity.