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.