Officials fear conflict of interest in City budget debate
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
City officials complained on Monday over the interference of city councillors in their drafting of next year's city budget and alleged that they might be tempted to seek an advantage from the planned projects.
A senior official, requesting anonymity, said he objected to the councillors' involvement in the technical matters, saying that they should concentrate more on budget monitoring and appropriate allocation.
"We run into difficulties with the debates on upcoming projects because the councillors are far too involved in the planning and design from the beginning," the official said.
He alleged that there was an indication that certain councillors were looking to be perhaps unethically involved in various projects.
Councilman Dani Anwar of the Justice Party claimed that the involvement of the councillors in planning the budget was in fact aimed at upholding transparency.
"We continue to scrutinize the planning of the budget. Even with regard to projects of the 2003 city budget, which the administration will have to justify in January next year," Dani, who is secretary of the council's commission B for economic affairs, stated.
He denied the accusation that the councillors could take advantage of such a situation by interfering with details of the planned projects.
Councillor Ugiek Soegihardjo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle supported Dani's statement, saying that the council would not rubber stamp planned projects as happened in past years.
The city administration is scheduled to submit the 2002 City Budget at the end of this month, while the approval would be made in December.
It is estimated that next year's budget would be about Rp 8.3 trillion, compared to this year's Rp 8.1 trillion, according to City Financial Assistant Makmun Amin.
Approximately 20 percent of the 2001 City Budget remained unused, he added.
Makmun said the councillors should be involved in the planning of the budget from the beginning, but in a limited role.
"But their involvement must be to make decisions on policy matters, not technical matters. It's our duty," Makmun said.
Over the past month, several agencies have been summoned by the council to justify their planned budgets for next year.
On Monday, executives of the city-owned Ragunan Zoo met the council's commission D in a hearing to explain the zoo's budget.
The commission threatened to cut the zoo's planned projects worth Rp 55 billion if the zoo's executives could not clearly account for its 2001 budget.
"We will approve only a quarter of their budget or about Rp 13 billion if the executives are unable to justify the use of this year's budget," councillor Dani said.
He gave an examples of the zoo's five different projects, each worth Rp 500 million, such as the construction of a white tiger's cage and the maintenance of a dam.
Zoo Director Ismianto could not adequately relate all the details on the use of the funding allocations because the zoo's financial official failed to attend the hearing.