Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Emphasises APBD Must Be an Instrument for Solving Community Problems

Deputy Minister of Home Affairs (Wamendagri) Akhmad Wiyagus has stressed that the Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBD) must serve as an instrument for resolving community welfare issues, not merely as an annual financial planning document. “Every budget allocation in the APBD must have a clear target, a measure of success, and its impact must be felt directly by the community. The APBD is not just a shopping list, but an instrument for the state to be present in the midst of society and solve existing problems,” said Wiyagus at the Regional Coordination Meeting (Rakorwil) of the Association of Indonesian Regency DPRDs (ADKASI) for Kalimantan in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, on Thursday. He therefore emphasised that APBD management must be directed towards answering community needs through targeted programmes, as the success of a budget is not only seen from the amount of realised spending, but from the benefits generated for the public. On that occasion, Wiyagus assessed that the DPRD has a strategic role in ensuring that the APBD drafted by the local government truly becomes a development instrument that does not stop at discussion and approval, but also through oversight. He revealed that based on data from the Directorate General of Fiscal Balance at the Ministry of Finance, regional revenue in the national APBD for 2026 reached approximately IDR 1,189 trillion, while the projected regional expenditure was IDR 1,253 trillion. However, he noted that capital expenditure realisation as of June 2026 was only around 12.64 percent, which should be a concern for local governments to prevent programme delays. He asserted that the acceleration of budget realisation must still proceed with the principles of prudence and accountability, and that budget efficiency does not mean reducing services to the community, but rather directing spending towards programmes with a greater impact. “We hope that local governments together with the DPRD can ensure the APBD becomes a productive development instrument so that the benefits of the budget can be immediately felt by the community through increasingly high-quality public services,” said Wiyagus.