Govt adamant about budget rise, despite criticism

Rendi A. Witular and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Defying widespread public criticism, the government refused to cancel a 57 percent increase in the 2006 budget allocation for the presidential office amid the country's difficult situation.

"It will not be revised now, but it is possible in June next year," Vice President Jusuf Kalla told a news conference at his office here on Friday.

He defended the government's decision to raise the presidential office budget by over 57 percent to Rp 1.147 trillion next year.

The move was due to the increase in operational costs for the presidential office, Kalla argued. "The increase is proper, judging from the country's size".

The Vice President assured the public that the President may not spend the whole budget as it would be in the form of allocated programs.

"The President has ordered us to be very efficient," Kalla said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is known as a media- savvy leader, had ordered Minister of Finance Yusuf Anwar to cancel the increase during a plenary meeting with the House of Representatives to approve the draft state budget on Friday.

However, the House approved the state budget on Friday without any significant revisions.

Yusuf said the government would revise the budget allocation for the presidential office in June next year through the revised state budget.

The President suddenly ordered Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi and presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng, who accompanied him on a visit to Jambi province on Friday, to go back to Jakarta to brief journalists about the issue.

Senior government officials have made conflicting statements concerning the issue.

Andi has said Susilo "was very shocked" after reading news that the government planned to raise the presidential office's budget from Rp 727 billion to Rp 1.147 trillion.

The President then summoned Yusuf and other related ministers to give him clearer explanations about the reports.

Jusuf later said that Susilo knew about the planned increase as it was included in the draft state budget the President had approved in a Cabinet meeting.

Meanwhile, Anggito Abimanyu, a senior official with the Ministry of Finance, revealed that the increase was related to the government's plan to buy a presidential plane next year.

In response, Andi said that Anggito's remark was "only a slip of the tongue". He refused to elaborate upon the statement.

The news about the government's plan to increase next year's budgets for the presidential office and the vice presidential office appeared this week following a tip from a legislator of the Indonesia Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P).

The reports surfaced soon after the House was widely criticized for its decision to allocate Rp 10 million in monthly operational allowances for each of its 550 members following fuel price hikes.

The increases in the budget allocations for the House and the President have sparked public anger as most people are currently facing economic hardship amid soaring prices of all basic commodities triggered by the expensive fuel prices.

Critics have said the government lacks a "sense of crisis" by making such unpopular decisions, while it cut fuel subsidies for the people.