Government asked to be fairer in subventions to regencies
Ainur R. Sophiaan, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya
East Java's regents have called on the central government to be more fair in the provision and distribution of general allocation funds (DAU) to regencies in the 2002 fiscal year.
The regents, who attended a seminar on general allocation funds in Surabaya on Wednesday, suggested that the government consult with regents to determine the amount of funds to be allocated to all regions in East Java for the 2002 fiscal year.
In line with the implementation of regional autonomy, the central government has allocated funds to regions to finance their administrations, including civil servants' wages and development programs.
Nganjuk Regent Soetrisno said he was disappointed with the central government, which had not been fair in distributing the funds to regencies throughout the province this fiscal year.
He said that in 2001, Nganjuk received a total of Rp 218.6 billion, while Trenggalek, with a smaller population than Nganjuk, received Rp 212 billion.
"Of the Rp 218.6 billion, Rp 217.3 billion is used to pay more than 12,300 civil servants in the regency and, with only Rp 1.63 billion remaining, we had to borrow Rp 4.8 billion from the provincial government to carry out the development program.
He suggested that Nganjuk, with a population of 1.1 million, should receive a significantly higher allocation than Trenggalek, which has a population of 600,000.
Tuban Regent Henny Relawati said that the central government should not implement new policies half way through the fiscal year that could affect regional administrations.
As an example, she noted that regencies experienced financial difficulties when faced with providing back-pay for civil servants, especially teachers, after the central government decided in August to raise the teachers' wages by around 30 percent, back-dated to April.
Machfud Sidik, director general for fiscal balance at the Ministry of Home Affairs, said the central government had established a criteria for distributing the general allocation funds.
"The amount of DAU regencies will receive depends on their fiscal capacity, resource potential, population, territory size, political and social condition," he said in the seminar.
He asserted that the central government would be fairer in distributing the general allocation funds to avoid any further dissatisfaction among regional administrations.
In its 2002 state budget, the government has raised the general allocation fund to Rp 69.1 trillion from Rp 60.5 trillion this year.
Machfud said the government was also likely to allocate special funds to accelerate the implementation of prioritized programs.
"This fiscal year, the special funds have been allocated to help speed up reforestation programs in almost all provinces but, in the next fiscal year, the central government will allocate special funds to finance elementary education and development programs," he said.
Soekarwo, chief of the provincial government revenue office, regretted that the central government had not consulted with regencies to determine their financial needs to cover administration and development program expenses.
"The central government has enlisted experts from some universities to assist in designing the present DAU concept, which does not match with the real condition in regions because they all differ from one another," he said.
Faried Alfauzi, a legislator from the East Java provincial legislative council, said the central government must be transparent in handling the general allocation funds, which are a sensitive issue among regions.
"The government should not only unveil its administrative accountability to the People's Consultative Assembly, but also its programs, performance, and compliance with its programs and the law, to the general public. So far, neither the current nor previous governments have never announced development programs and their balance sheets to the public," he said.