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