Councillors 'uninterested' in City Hall budget meeting

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.