Govt urged to disburse general allocation fund payments soon
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
North Sumatra and East Java have both called on the central government to immediately disburse their general allocation fund (DAU) payments for December 2001 in light of the upcoming Idul Fitri, Christmas and New Year holidays.
Soekardi, director of the East Java provincial administration's finance section, said that so far there had been no indication that the Ministry of Finance would make early disbursement of the general allocation fund payment for the last month of fiscal 2001.
"Unlike previous months, the general allocation fund payment for December 2001 should be disbursed by the end of this month to give the provincial administration adequate time to distribute the funds to the regencies," he said.
Soekardi warned that any delay in disbursement of the funds could cause unrest among the province's approximately 48,000 civil servants, especially those working in isolated areas of the province.
"Civil servants and teachers working in isolated areas will face financial difficulties in the mouth of the Idul Fitri, Christmas and New Year holidays if their salaries are not paid on time, or by the first week of December 2001 at the latest," he said, adding that East Java needed around Rp 60 billion to pay the salaries of its civil servants next month.
The central government has allocated Rp 449.50 billion from the general allocation fund to East Java to finance development projects and pay civil service salaries this year.
Abdul Gani Sitepu, director of the North Sumatra administration's finance section, concurred and said that the province had borrowed Rp 5.23 billion from the North Sumatra Development Bank to help cover the cost of provincial civil service salaries this year.
"For this fiscal year, the central government has allocated only Rp 264 billion from the general allocation fund to the province while we actually need a total of Rp 269.23 billion to pay the civil servants' salaries and finance development projects," he claimed.
He said the provincial government had sought other sources of funding to cover the public sector wage bill following the government's July 2001 decision to increase civil service salaries.
Arlan Nasution, spokesman for the Medan municipal administration, said the city would borrow around Rp 35 billion from the North Sumatra Development Bank (BPDSU) to pay its 19,420 civil servants.
He said that following the July 2001 increase in civil servants' salaries, the city government had only been able to pay outstanding back pay to 1,735 of its civil servants due to lack of funds.
Meanwhile, Sarinah, chief of the spending unit of the West Java provincial administration's finance section, said the provincial administration had no financial difficulties in paying the salaries of the 18,630 civil servants in the province as it had reserved Rp 21.22 trillion for the purpose from this month's disbursement by the central government from the general allocation fund.
"We would have a serious problem though if the central government decided to stop the general allocation fund disbursements in the future as the province has yet to find any other way of paying its civil servants," she said.
She added that the majority of the province's general allocation fund payments had been used to finance road rehabilitation projects.
Yusar Huduri, director of the South Sulawesi administration's finance section, said the central government had already disbursed Rp 16 billion to cover the payment of the December 2001 salaries of 13,700 civil servants in the province.
He said that the total amount of Rp 232 billion that had been allocated by the central government to the province out of the general allocation fund had already been received.
"The funds to pay civil servants for December 2001 are already in hand. We are now distributing them to regencies," he said.