Late budget approval may delay projects

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Many development projects, such as the construction of roads and sewers, could be delayed next year as the 2002 city budget cannot not be approved in time.

The City Council will not be able to approve the budget this year because the bylaw of the city financial principles, on which the budget is based, is still under discussion. The bylaw is scheduled to be approved on Thursday.

It is expected that the budget proposal will be approved sometime from mid-January to early February.

The City Council looks as though it will be unable to win the race against time for the budget's approval by the end of the year.

"With few working days remaining and the Idul Fitri and Christmas holidays looming ahead, I think we will not be able to approve the budget by the end of this year," councillor Azis Boeang of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle said on the weekend.

He blamed the administration for its tardiness in proposing the bylaw on financial principles, which in turn has left councillors with little time to review the 2002 budget proposal.

While many development projects could be delayed, pending the budget's approval, Azis, a member of Council Commission C for financial and budgetary affairs, said that routine expenditure, such as employees' salaries, could be disbursed based on the 2001 budget.

The city administration said earlier that the budget could be proposed based either on the bylaw, or be similar to past budgets.

Budgets in past years used to arrive at a balance between expenditure and revenue, while the new budget, based on the bylaw, could allow for a surplus.

In the past, under the balanced approach, many agencies often proposed "unnecessary" projects to arrive at a balance between expenditure and revenue.

The new bylaw, which allows the administration to arrange the budget priorities, has been inspired by the regional autonomy program, according to councillor Amarullah Asbah of the Golkar Party.

"It's similar to the past, when all terms and priorities were decided by the central government. It's more independent," said Amarullah of Commission D for development affairs.

Among the independent decisions of the administration, for example, is Article 35 of the proposed bylaw, which states that the City Council chairman and deputy chairman shall receive an official car and an official house each.

Official cars are not new. But official houses were not mentioned in previous budgets. Regional autonomy is expected to boost the city's revenue and hence its spending ability, as a surplus is expected in the next budget.

The administration announced that the next budget would be Rp 8.5 trillion (US$850 billion), of which around 60 percent would be for routine expenditure, with the remaining 40 percent for development spending.

This year's budget, amounting to Rp 8.1 trillion, has 70 percent for routine expenditure and 30 percent for development spending, and is expected to be Rp 400 billion in surplus.