NGO data alleges massive corruption in Tangerang

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

Two non governmental organizations (NGOs) that specialize in observing the performance of the Tangerang mayoralty said that they found a large amount of budget misappropriation and project failures in 2001.

"I can guarantee that Mayor M. Thamrin will deliver mostly false reports in his accountability speech in March 2002," Ibnu Jandi from the NGO, Public Policy, told The Jakarta Post last week.

He said that after conducting several surveys, he found that a Rp 24 billion fund allocated for 14 development programs in Tangerang had been misused and the projects were not done.

"I think these were all just bogus projects with the money distributed among officials, because in my observation, none of the budgeted programs took place. Also some of the programs had been budgeted twice under routine expenses," he said.

He said that the double-allocated funds include the Rp 1.4 billion fund for an urban innovation management project, Rp 100 million for a bylaw dissemination program, Rp 600 million to make zoning plans, Rp 200 million for administrative development control, Rp 200 million for the establishment of a regional development program (Properda), Rp 50 million for supportive functional controlling activities, Rp 50 million for regional development planning, Rp 150 million for public development planning and Rp 500 million for support of political parties.

He also said that in addition to allocating a fund of Rp 350 million to purchase the equipment for the city's water company (PDAM), the administration also double-allocated a fund of Rp 221.4 million to purchase furniture for PDAM.

"I think budget allocation for the furniture should have been included in the routine expenses of the company," Jandi said.

He said that neither the municipal Development Planning Body Chief, Affandi Permana, or chairman of the Budget Committee, Busro, could explain why the programs were not done nor where the money had gone.

He added that Busro, who is also a local councillor, claimed that the failures resulted from a lack of vision or mission from Mayor M. Thamrin.

The administration earlier predicted its annual revenues to reach Rp 326 billion with expenses at Rp 319 billion, leaving a surplus of Rp 7.5 billion for 2001. But as of December, the surplus was some Rp 55 billion.

Jandi added that he would urge investigators to look into the alleged misuse soon.

Separately, Tony Wismantoro of Tangerang Government Watch (TGW) said the failures should not be blamed on the Mayor's performance alone.

According to him, the failures should be partly blamed on the municipal council that had approved the proposed budget programs without involving local community components such as NGOs, businessmen, public figures, experts, professionals and observers.

"All sectors of the community should have a voice in the process of creating the budget and it should be made transparent to the general public. But, in fact, the mayoralty did not do it that way," he told the Post last week.

Both Jandi and Tony also criticized the construction of an administration office center, which cost Rp 68 billion, while the mayoralty actually still has a number of buildings that could be used.

"Why not build a recreational center for local tourism or business centers. I think their only aim is to build an expensive building while ignoring the public interest," said Jandi.

"What the local people really need is an improvement of public facilities such as the markets in Cikokol, Cileduk and Anyer, and bus terminals such as the one in Cimone. Unfortunately no fund has been allocated for those needs," Tony said.

Meanwhile, Thamrin denied allegations of corruption or program failure during 2001. "No...no..., there was no misappropriation at all. The budget items were allocated properly and all planned development programs have been implemented according to the initial plans," he told the Post recently.

However, when the Post showed him a list of the NGO reports, Thamrin took the list and said he needed time to study it. Then, he added, "The misappropriation could mean that budget allocations were not in line with the planned programs. But I am sure that there was no fund misappropriation at all."