Jakarta govt big spender, but fails to address crucial issues

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration spent Rp 10.38 trillion (US$1.2 billion), or 89.79 percent of the 2003 city budget of Rp 11.56 trillion, but failed to address crucial issues in the capital, said a legislator.

"Such big spending, unfortunately, failed to appease the public," said councillor Syamsidar Siregar of the National Mandate Party (PAN) faction, criticizing the executive.

Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso delivered his accountability speech on the 2003 city budget before the City Council on Tuesday evening.

Syamsidar said the administration had not used the fund for education properly, which was 15 percent of the city budget or Rp 1.6 trillion.

"It's ironic. We have received complaints from many people about high school fees although the city allocated a huge fund to subsidize education last year," she told The Jakarta Post by phone.

Sutiyoso did not give details on spending for education in his speech but only said that the administration had spent a total of Rp 2.61 trillion on education and health.

Syamsidar pointed out many irregularities.

"Aside from complaints about school fees, we also received reports of damaged school buildings, while it was estimated that the buildings were not scheduled for renovation," she said.

Some school buildings, which are generally totally renovated only after 30 years, were in a poor condition after only 18 years, indicating that inferior materials may have been used in their construction.

Councillor Ahmad Heriyawan of the Justice Party faction said that the accountability speech also "failed to address other crucial issues such as garbage disposal, a major issue for the 2003 city budget".

According to Heriyawan, the budget required the administration to prepare alternative dump sites by early 2004 at the latest to replace Bantar Gebang in Bekasi. The contract between Jakarta and Bekasi expired last year before both administration agreed to extend it. However, the extended contract received strong opposition from Bekasi Council which demanded that the Bekasi administration close Bantar Gebang due to extensive environmental damage.

To date, the Jakarta Sanitation Agency has also failed to open for city use the nine alternative dump sites it proposed earlier. The agency only managed to build an alternative dump in Bojong, Bogor regency. Despite its limited capacity, processing only 2,000 tons of Jakarta's 6,000 tons of daily waste, the dump was strongly opposed by locals for fear it would contaminate ground water and pollute the air.

"Due to its failure to manage the city's garbage, Jakarta experienced a garbage disposal crisis for several weeks. Worse, the sanitation agency dumped garbage in open, swampy land in Cilincing, North Jakarta, that caused pollution in the area," Heriyawan said.

The council factions are expected to present their general views on the budget accountability speech on March 29. The event will be at night as councillors are busy with their campaign schedule.