Councillors 'uninterested' in City Hall budget meeting
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After being forced out of Puncak and back to City Hall, councillors seem to have lost their enthusiasm for meetings with city officials to discuss the 2003 draft budget.
"Yes, some of my friends and some officials did not seem really serious (about the meeting)," councillor Audi I.Z. Tambunan of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle said on Wednesday.
Councillors and city officials did not gather in the meeting rooms with the same enthusiasm or in the same numbers as they did at the Ciloto Indah Permai Hotel in Puncak, Cianjur regency, West Java, on Tuesday.
Audi, who is a member of the council's Commission E for welfare, said it was probable the councillors and officials were still yearning for the meetings to be held in Puncak.
Responding to public complaints about traffic jams, police asked the council on Tuesday to cancel the meeting at the Ciloto hotel. The council agreed and moved the budget meetings back to Jakarta.
A meeting between Commission E and officials from the City Manpower Office was held in the budget room on the second floor of the council building.
Councillors from the Commission C for financial and budgetary affairs held their meeting with officials from the City Revenue Agency in the council's plenary hall on the third floor of the building.
A hall on the second floor of City Hall was used for a meeting between Commission D for developmental affairs and the City Transportation Agency. Among the items discussed at this meeting was the allocation of Rp 90.05 billion (US$9 million) for the controversial busway project.
Commission A for administrative and legal affairs held a meeting with officials from the City Public Order Agency in a meeting room on the 23rd floor of City Hall. They discussed the allocation of Rp 136 billion for the agency.
A meeting room on the 22nd floor of City Hall was used by councillors from Commission B for economic affairs and officials from the City Trade and Industry Agency. They discussed the allocation of Rp 400 billion for the industry and trade sector.
The deputy chairman of the City Council, Chudlory Syafei Hadzami, acknowledged that the meetings on Wednesday were not as focused as one might have hoped.
"I myself was interrupted by many guests today. If (the meetings) were held in Puncak it would have been better," Chudlary of the United Development Party said.
Already looking forward to 2004, Chudlary said the council would continue its tradition of discussing draft budgets in Puncak, at the city-owned Wisma Jaya Raya.
But he said the councillors would not be allowed to drive up in their own cars, but instead would have to come on the council buses, in order to avoid the traffic jams that lead to their being asked to leave this year.
"We will also invite fewer officials, not the 1,000 officials and employees that came on Tuesday," Chudlary said.
According to the council's original schedule for this year's budget discussions, the meetings were to be held at Wisma Jaya Raya. However, the council was forced to move the meetings to the Ciloto hotel because the Wisma Jaya Raya was already booked by paramilitary youth group Pemuda Panca Marga.
Police asked that the Ciloto meetings be canceled because of the 10-kilometer traffic jam they were causing from Cipayung to Ciloto.
Hundreds of cars belonging to councillors and city administration officials parked along the road in front the Ciloto hotel were the cause of the congestion.
Many observers criticize the budget meetings in Puncak as a waste of money and an effort to avoid public monitoring.