Irregularities highlighted in Jakarta's 2002 council budget

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

JAKARTA: Members of the public have sharply criticized the city administration for this year's city budget proposal, saying that it is full of irregularities and prone to corruption.

Wasilah Sutrisno, a councillor from Commission E of Social Welfare, said that many fund allocations in the budget draft were not made in the public interest.

"Some allocations for social welfare were not really aimed at improving people's welfare, but they will be provided to those who have no right" to the benefits, she told The Jakarta Post, referring to budget officials.

According to Wasilah, the administration proposed more than Rp 1 trillion for social improvements, including education and public welfare.

The administration's proposed job training programs, which seek vaguely to "improve public skill," she said, will require billions of rupiah, for example.

"What public? They did not stipulate it clearly," she said; her suspicions, she added, is that it might lead to manipulation.

On Monday, Governor Sutiyoso presented this year's city budget proposal at City Council, announcing that the administration had planned to increase the budget by nearly 10 percent, from Rp 8.1 trillion last year to Rp 8.9 trillion this year.

Some Rp 5.61 trillion, meanwhile, will be allocated for routine expenditures, while the remaining Rp 3.29 trillion would go towards development affairs.

However, Azas Tigor Nainggolan, leader of the Jakarta Residents Forum, was skeptical, saying the city budget plan was bizarre, and open to corruption.

"The Governor said that the administration allocated more funds for public service this year, but it was not true," he said, adding that the administrators have tricked the taxpayers by manipulating their money.

The administration had allocated Rp 520.9 billion for education. However, that fund would not be used for education programs alone -- it must also be disbursed for other needs, such as arts and cultural matters, Tigor said.

He also questioned the proposed budget fund, which would be used for renovating historical buildings such as the Cathedral building in Central Jakarta, which requires some Rp 64 billion.

"The funny thing is, the church administrator told me that they used their own fund for the renovation," Tigor told the Post.

Tigor added cynically that the councillors would approve the what he called a bizarre budget so long as the administration would allocate more funds for them.

The budget fund proposed by the city administration for the City Council amounted to more than Rp 102 billion this year, as compared with Rp 76 billion last year.

In addition, the councillors will receive a health allowance of Rp 6 billion, consisting of Rp 4.3 billion for life insurance and Rp 1.5 billion for their doctor's services.