JP/5/OTSUS

JP/5/OTSUS

Papua gets Rp 1.6t autonomy fund

Nethy Dharma Somba
The Jakarta Post
Jayapura, Papua

The Papua province autonomy fund is Rp 1.6 trillion (US$195.5
million) for 2004, an increase of Rp 300 billion from the 2003
budget, an official said on Thursday.

The autonomy fund will be shared between the provincial
government and 29 mayoralties and regencies in Papua, including
nine in the newly established West Irian Jaya province.

West Irian Jaya itself will not receive money from the fund
because the provincial administration has yet to form a working
bureaucracy.

Decky Asmuruf, secretary of the Papua provincial
administration, said that of the Rp 1.6 trillion fund, 60 percent
or Rp 985.2 billion would be used by the 29 regencies and
mayoralties, with the remaining 40 percent or Rp 656.8 billion
going to the provincial government.

Decky told The Jakarta Post in Jayapura, the capital of Papua,
the percentage of the fund to be distributed to the provincial
administration and the mayoralties and regencies in 2004 was
reversed from previous years.

In previous years, the provincial government received 60
percent of the fund and regencies and mayoralties 40 percent. The
change is the result of complaints by regents and mayors.

The regents and mayors said they needed a greater share of the
fund because they were the ones dealing directly with the people
and were on the frontline of development.

According to an agreement between regents and mayors and the
provincial government, of the Rp 985.2 billion allocated for
regencies and mayoralties, Rp 580 billion will be paid out in
cash, with each regency and mayoralty receiving Rp 20 billion.

The division of the regional autonomy fund is based on the
number of inhabitants, area size, number of poor people, general
allocation funds, gross domestic regional product and regional
initiated income of an area.

Four sectors will receive priority in deciding on how the
money from the fund will be used. The education sector is to
receive 20 percent of the money and the health sector 15 percent,
with the remainder to fund economic empowerment programs and
infrastructure projects, as well as independent programs in each
mayoralty and regency.

The distribution of the money is part of the regional autonomy
drive launched by the government in 2001.