Official fired for holding up aid

Official fired for holding up aid

JAKARTA: Governor Sutiyoso announced Thursday that he had
dismissed the Central Jakarta National Unity Office head Zainal
Abidin for intentionally delaying the disbursement of aid to
political parties.

Speaking during a plenary session of the city council,
Sutiyoso revealed that Zainal was officially dismissed on
Tuesday.

City spokesman Muhayat added that Zainal postponed the
disbursement of Rp 55.6 million (US$5,940) for the National
Mandate Party (PAN) last year.

Besides PAN, the Justice Party, and the Unity and Justice
Party also claimed that their allocations had come a few months
late.

PAN councillor Wasilah Sutrisno revealed earlier that her
party would reject Sutiyoso's accountability speech due to, among
other things, the delay in the disbursement of the party funding.

It's still unclear whether there was any political reason
behind the delay in the disbursement of the funds

The 2001 city budget has allocated Rp 6.5 billion for the 48
political parties which contested the 1999 general elections. The
aid is supposed to be disbursed quarterly. -- JP