House members criticize govt for 'over-spending'
House members criticize govt for 'over-spending'
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) and the
Moslem-dominated United Development Party (PPP) have criticized
the government for its over-spending during the 1994-1995
financial year.
Both the PDI and the PPP factions of the Budgetary Commission
of the House of Representatives (DPR) said in a hearing with
Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad that the government had spent
too much because it had lacked consistency in implementing the
national budget.
Revenues and spending for the 1994-1995 budget had been
expected to balance at Rp 69.74 trillion (US$31.4 billion) but,
as it turned out, there were several changes in both revenues and
spending.
Total expenditure is estimated to have exceeded the original
plan by 3.72 percent, reaching Rp 72.34 trillion, while revenues
are believed to have surpassed the initial target by about 3.74
percent, to reach Rp 72.35 trillion.
Budgetary revisions are, under Indonesian law, subject to the
House's approval.
Marwan Adam, a PDI spokesman, said that his party had to
approve the revised budget despite its objections because, under
the existing budgetary procedures, details of revenues and
spending were not presented during deliberation on budgetary
revision.
"How can we audit the state budget if no details are available
about the revenue and expenditure sides of the budget," he said.
The PDI, which is Indonesia's smallest but most vocal
political party, has campaigned for several years for a change in
budgetary procedures under which the legislature would be
provided with details of government spending.
Under the current budgetary system, the government is obliged
to disclose only a general outline of expected annual revenues
and spending.
Fraud
The PDI faction said the present budgetary procedures were
vulnerable to fraud because House members had no access to
information which would allow them to check whether or not the
budget had been correctly implemented.
Sa'di Zen, a PPP spokesman, said that over-spending could be
engineered if the government wished to benefit from a surplus on
the revenue side.
"If the projection was correct, then spending has not been in
accordance with the plan," he said.
Minister Mar'ie said that the higher-than-expected state
revenues were possible because receipts from both domestic
sources and foreign loans had exceeded the budgetary target.
According to the 1994-1995 budget, the government expected to
obtain Rp 66.2 trillion from domestic sources and Rp 11.76
trillion from foreign aid.
The minister said that routine spending is now estimated to
have exceeded the original plan by two percent, to reach Rp 43.17
trillion, partly as a result of higher-than-expected spending on
personnel.
Government spending on debt servicing also exceeded the target
by 2.5 percent, to Rp 18.42 trillion, Mar'ie said.
The minister said that the higher-than-expected debt-servicing
spending had been caused by the early repayment of some high-
interest foreign loans.
He said that other spending was estimated to reach Rp 204
billion, around 61.2 percent less than the budget target.
The 1993-1994 budget was marred by a deficit of nearly Rp 1.8
trillion, the result of an unexpectedly large increase in the
government's routine spending, combined with an 0.5 percent drop
of oil and gas revenues due, in turn, to a drop in oil prices.
(hen)