Councillors to get free training paid for by UNDP

Councillors to get free training paid for by UNDP

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Public funds apparently are no longer adequate for Jakarta city
councillors as they revealed their plan on Friday to use foreign
funding worth US$130,000 to improve their knowledge in the fields
of urban and environmental management.

"We have been criticized for wasting the city budget, so now
we will cooperate with foreign institutions to finance our
projects," councillor Tjuk Sudono of the National Mandate Party
(PAN) told reporters.

This year's budget allocates a total of Rp 91 billion for the
85 councillors. That includes Rp 1 billion for a clothing
allowance and Rp 5 billion for foreign and domestic travel. Their
budget will also be used for their salaries -- inclusive of daily
transportation expenses which comes to a whopping Rp 32 million
per month per councillor -- of Rp 42 billion, welfare allowances
of Rp 19 billion, operational costs of Rp 10 billion and meeting
allowances which come to Rp 1.4 billion.

Tjuk, who was a former executive with American oil company
ARCO, said the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and
the US-based General Electric Corporation had agreed to disburse
US$100,000 and US$30,000 respectively to finance a number of
projects, including training in urban and environmental
management.

He said the knowledge of urban and environmental management
was desperately needed by the councillors for them to effectively
understand their duties with regard to supervising a city like
Jakarta.

Tjuk added that the program would also involve local residents
in certain areas which were identified as having environmental
problems.

"The program will deal with problems, such as garbage and
floods, and will be expanded to other districts in the future,"
he said.

City Council deputy chairman Chudlary Syafei Hadzami said the
Council had selected four districts, Tanah Abang, Sawah Besar,
Johar Baru and Cempaka Putih as pilot project areas for the
program.

"The program is set to begin in February this year," Chudlary
of the United Development Party (PPP) said, but admitted that the
details could not yet be made public.

The councillors have often been criticized for wasting huge
sums of public money to finance their facilities and training
them how to be administrators. Despite a number of publicly
funded projects in recent years to improve their skills in
managing the city, including several "comparative studies"
abroad, it seems that none have made significant enough
improvement in the councillors' skills and knowledge, thus
further training was deemed necessary.

Two years ago the city budget financed the councillors'
master's degree program in management from privately-run STIE
Jagakarsa school of management.

Although it was never made clear how well they did or if they
passed the exams, currently many councillors put MM degree behind
their names.

Other councillors who were only high school graduates, were
given financing to study undergraduate programs in political
science at 17 Agustus University in 2001.

The councillors, whose monthly base salary is was quoted at Rp
9 million each, also received special benefits such as an
official sedans paid for out of the city budget.