Crisis forces city to review its draft budget

Crisis forces city to review its draft budget

JAKARTA (JP): The monetary crisis has forced the municipality
to keep reviewing its draft budget for the 1998/1999 fiscal year
which is due to take effect beginning April 1, an official said.

The continuous reviews have caused significant delays in
getting final approval from the City Council, said Ongky Sukasah,
one of several senior city officials who attended the latest
budget meeting Thursday.

Normally a plenary session to review the draft takes place in
January.

Last year the session was held on Jan. 24.

"Continuous reviews of a draft are actually normal in these
conditions because of the severe fluctuations in our economic
problems," Ongky, head of the city's housing agency, told The
Jakarta Post Friday.

Ongky said the last meeting warmly welcomed Governor
Sutiyoso's instruction to all city units and agencies to return
any unused funds from the 1997/1998 fiscal year budget to the
municipality.

He said the governor also called on his subordinates to cut
down on unnecessary expenses and return unused funds.

"This includes funds which were supposed to be used for
overseas trips, seminars and other unnecessary ceremonies, which
have all been terminated," he said.

The bottom line, he added, was that all city officials should
be thrifty because the city could no longer afford to pay for
anything but essentials.

"Actually this order has been in place for quite sometime, but
in last Thursday's meeting, he reiterated that all units must
soon return their remaining funds to the Deputy Governor for
Economic and Financial affairs," he said.

Early reports said all 64 city units and agencies must also
reduce their proposed budgets for the upcoming fiscal year by 10
percent to 15 percent.

Thursday's meeting was closed to the press.

A number of officials of the National Disciplinary Movement
stopped City Hall reporters from attending the meeting.

But Ongky questioned the reason for the closure.

"What was there to hide? It was just a simple notification
from the governor to his subordinates to be aware of the economic
situation.

"The municipality has to show to the public its political will
to be thrifty and cautious in handling the city budget during a
time of economic woe," he said.

Deputy Governor for Economic and Development Affairs Harun Al
Rasyid was quoted by Sinar weekly recently as saying the previous
draft city budget proposal of Rp 3.1 trillion for 1998/1999 was
to be cut to Rp 2.8 trillion,

In December, the city cut its proposed budget from Rp 3.22
trillion to Rp 3.1 trillion.

Ongky said: "The city is having a hard time here. It's quite
tiring for the city's agencies to keep on changing their budget
proposals. But what else we can do?

"My agency, for instance, has to find ways to cut down our
proposed budget of Rp 55 billion for the upcoming fiscal year,"
he added.

This would be hard because the agency has already publicly
announced its programs, he said.

"It will be embarrassing if, for instance, we have to cancel
plans to finance compensation for people moving from state land
or build cheap apartments. This will also affect the relationship
between the agency and investors," Ongky said. (edt)