N. Sumatra's budget lacks transparency: Councillors

Apriadi Gunawan The Jakarta Post Medan, North Sumatra

North Sumatra Governor T. Rizal Nurdin formally submitted the province's draft budget for 2003, totaling Rp 1.16 trillion (US$130 million), a 19.52 percent increase from last year's budget of Rp 972.23 billion.

This year's draft budget is the first to allocate more money for development programs in North Sumatra than for the province's routine spending.

During a plenary session of the North Sumatra legislative council on Wednesday, Rizal said his administration had increased the development budget from Rp 355.85 billion in 2002 to Rp 644.32 billion this year.

The budget for routine spending has been cut from Rp 616.38 billion last year to Rp 517 billion in 2003.

However, legislators criticized the increased allocation for development because the money would be spent on non-physical development projects in the province, including human resource development programs.

Non-physical development projects are vulnerable to corruption due to their lack of transparency, many of the legislators said.

Speaking to journalists after the plenary session, the governor said the development budget would be spent on 349 projects covering nine sectors.

Rizal said the regional budget was drafted with an emphasis on improving the economy, religious harmony, public and health services, and social welfare, as well as eradicating poverty.

He said the draft budget was influenced by conditions in North Sumatra, where poverty and unemployment are high and continue to increase.

In his speech to the council, the governor said the money for the 2003 budget would come from the province's original revenue sources, projected at Rp 621.01 billion, and the money left over from last year's budget, which amounts to Rp 116.06 billion. Another Rp 424.95 billion will come from the central government.

Councillors also questioned the process of drafting the regional budget, saying it lacked transparency.

Jonner Pangaribuan, one of the critics, said there were numerous allocations in the budget that were not clear. "There is no urgency to allocate money for purposes that are unclear," he said.

Citing an example, Jonner said the administration had allocated more than Rp 80 billion ($9 million) for "additional expenses".

He said one of the weaknesses in the drafting of the budget was a lack of standards in determining the amount of funding to be allocated.

In the 2003 draft budget, less money is allocated for civil servants, from Rp 3.39 billion in 2002 to Rp 2.01 billion this year, but there is an increase in operational expenses from Rp 2.77 billion to Rp 4.23 billion.

The budget for the governor's official trips and house maintenance was raised to Rp 125 million and Rp 74 million respectively, from Rp 90 million and Rp 69 million.

Councillor Robinson Sitepu said the drafting of the budget was not based on proper research, but negotiations between the local administration and political parties.

He said there were indications of money politics in deliberations of the budget at the legislative council.

Sitepu claimed he had received information that legislators and government officials involved in the deliberations would receive 5 percent of the value of each budget allocation approved by the council.