Few notice better services in selected subdistricts

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Abdullah noticed something unusual in his neighborhood the last few months: the presence of street sweepers.

"It was only much later that I learned they were employed by the subdistrict administration to keep our neighborhood clean," the 45-year-old resident of Petamburan subdistrict in Central Jakarta told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He said few residents were aware that Petamburan had been selected to participate in a pilot project on improving public services.

The pilot project, introduced in January, involves 50 subdistricts and 10 districts across the capital, each of which has received Rp 1 billion (US$105,263) to finance the daily operations of administration offices and various public services for one year.

According to the guidelines of the project, subdistrict administration officials have full authority to design individual programs and manage their project budgets, after obtaining approval from Governor Sutiyoso.

Generally, the programs should cover sanitation, security, community health and flood prevention.

Petamburan subdistrict treasurer Chaerullah Dasuki said the administration was prioritizing sanitation programs.

"We recruited 10 residents to become sanitation workers, whose main jobs are to clean up the roads and to transport garbage to the dump. We pay them Rp 500,000 a month," he told the Post.

This program, according to Chaerullah, had absorbed Rp 170 million from the pilot project budget as of April.

But not all subdistricts in the pilot project have shown the same initiative as Petamburan.

"Frankly, I did not know my subdistrict was chosen for the pilot project. I do not see any difference," said Nurdin, 30, a resident of Rawa Bunga subdistrict in East Jakarta.

Many of the subdistrict administrations in the project prefer to "play it safe", unsure of what to do with the money they have been given.

The deputy head of Rawa Bunga, Iwan Heriyawan, acknowledged that he and subdistrict head Romy Sidharta were confused about what programs could or could not be financed with the funds.

"Can we allocate the money to subsidize non-governmental organizations in our subdistrict?" he asked.

Ishak Firdaus, the head of Kebayoran Lama Utara subdistrict in South Jakarta, got cold feet because of all the stories in the media about corruption.

"It seems that all eyes were on me after our subdistrict was chosen for the project. We have to be careful about using the funds," he said.

An official in Petamburan said the administration was confused when it was ordered by the municipality administration to repair the concrete columns in the West Flood Canal to prevent flooding in the subdistrict.

"That king of program was not explicitly mentioned in the guidelines, so we are not sure whether we can use some of the funds for that," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

According to data from the city's administration bureau, only Rp 15.39 billion of the Rp 81.19 billion allotted for the pilot project has been spent on public service programs. The operational spending of administration offices has reached Rp 8.45 billion over the last four months.

Bureau head Agus Salim Utud said many subdistricts were using the money to provide honorariums for officials instead of on programs that would directly benefit the community.