Irregularities abound in draft city budget: NGOs

Irregularities abound in draft city budget: NGOs

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Activists slammed the Rp 13.839 trillion (US$1.483 billion) draft
city budget on Thursday, saying would be a gold mine for dodgy
deals because it had not been allocated transparently.

"There have already been efforts to block public access to
obtain the budget draft or to limit the public in providing
input," the Coalition of Non-governmental Organizations
Monitoring the City Budget said on Thursday.

Representatives of the coalition, which includes the
Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency, Indonesian Corruption
Watch, the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute and the Indonesian
Consumers Foundation, met with the City Council Commission C on
budgetary affairs on Thursday.

The allocation to the City Secretariat was an example of the
flagrant misuse of public funds, the representatives said.
Instead of only channeling funds to institutions such as the
Indonesian Red Cross, NGOs, public hospitals, youth groups and
city soccer club Persija, it was also giving "financial
assistance" to political parties, the Indonesian Military and a
group called the Forum of City Strategic Studies -- all
destinations that were prone to irregularities, the group said in
a statement.

The financial assistance to the military, meanwhile, had no
legal basis since the law required only the state government to
fund the military, the activists said.

In the draft, the administration has allocated Rp 14.684
billion for political parties, Rp 5.15 billion for the military,
Rp 6.5 billion for the forum and Rp 75 billion for unexpected
spending.

It also allocated another Rp 1.154 billion for councillors
whose five-year terms had already ended on Aug. 25.

"These councillors are not entitled to receive severance
allowances. Worse still, the funds would be taken from the 2005
budget," the coalition said.

It also criticized other extra payouts given to councillors
for performing certain tasks, saying the work should be treated
as part of their ordinary jobs.

The city plans to share out Rp 5.544 billion among the
councillors that discussed the governor's accountability report
and Rp 22.176 billion for the deliberation of the city budget
draft and development plan.

"Therefore, we call on the council to transfer these funds
which are prone to corruption and misuse to other sectors that
have a direct positive impact on people -- like education and
health," it said.

"We also urge the council to allow the public to give their
input during the budget deliberation as is in line with Law No.
32/2004 on city administrations."

The activists criticized the administration for allocating
only 7 percent of its budget to social and cultural affairs, with
the lion's share going to administrative spending.

The city had also allocated Rp 23.1 billion to ensure council
workers could evict those illegally squatting on public land,
they said.