Disbursement of teachers' back pay to be speeded up

JAKARTA (JP): Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla said on Friday that the central government would assist certain regional administrations that were unable to pay teachers' salary back pay.

Speaking at the legislature building after President Megawati Soekarnoputri unveiled the 2001 state budget, Jusuf said that the calculation of funds for regional administrations would end this week.

He said regions considered eligible to receive the funds were those whose regional incomes (PAD) were less than 30 percent of the routine budget from central government.

A week-long nationwide teachers' strike has plagued many of the country's provinces, including East Java, West Java, Lampung, Jambi, Southeast Sulawesi, North Sulawesi and South Kalimantan.

In Jambi thousands of teachers continued their strike on Friday and refused an offer from Jambi's city administration which had promised to disburse 50 percent of the back pay this month.

Jusuf said that basically, teachers' salaries fell under the responsibility of regional administrations.

"But if they really have no funds, we will help them," he said.

In Bandar Lampung, spokesman for the city administration Syaiful Anwar said that Bandar Lampung Mayor Soeharto had asked for a Rp 19.65 billion loan from the provincial and central government, Antara reported.

He said one copy of the letter had also been sent to President Megawati.

"If the loan is granted, the disbursement of teachers' back pay will be made before Oct. 15," he said.

If the provincial administration and central government could not lend the money, the mayor would seek a loan from the Bank of Lampung.

On Thursday, thousands of teachers staged a protest at the office of Bandar Lampung mayor.

Central government has insisted that it has disbursed the funds for teachers' salary back pay through the so-called general allocation fund (DAU), but a number of regional administrations have failed to disburse the back pay from this year's budget.

The government increased the salaries of public school teachers in April by 14 percent to 30 percent but has failed to pay the increment for six months now.

In the Central Java town of Magelang, members of the local legislative council and of the teachers' association (PGRI) will soon meet to discuss the back pay problem.

So far there has been no teachers' strike in this regency, but Chairman of Magelang PGRI chapter Sungadi could not guarantee that the teachers would not follow the moves made by their colleagues in other regions.

"As executives of PGRI we only act as facilitators so that the teachers will not go on strike or hold street rallies," Sungadi said. (02/hbk)