Only 60% of development fund spent
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta Administration was only able to spend some 60 percent of the Rp 2.24 trillion (US$263.53 million) earmarked in the 2003 city budget for development projects.
The meager spend by the city administration was disclosed on Friday by the chairman of the City Council's development commission, Koeswadi Soesilohardjo, at a council plenary session to debate the results of discussions on the draft 2004 city budget with administration officials.
He expressed concern over the failure to meet the targets set by the budget in respect of various development projects designed to improve the city's infrastructure, including waste treatment, housing, flood prevention and transportation facilities.
A total of Rp 2.24 trillion was allocated for infrastructure spending out of the overall 2003 budget of Rp 11.56 trillion.
Koeswadi estimated that less than 70 percent of the infrastructure budget would be spent by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, the administration has proposed that its total budget for 2004 be increased to Rp 12.16 trillion with the infrastructure allocation being upped to Rp 2.53 trillion, despite the failure to meet targets in 2003.
The proposed infrastructure allocation will account for the third largest chunk of budget funds after the Rp 3.61 trillion earmarked for health and education and the Rp 3.10 trillion allocated for spending on the administrative.
Koeswadi said the failure to meet spending targets indicated a dismal performance on the part of the city government's principal agencies, particularly those under the coordination of the assistant to the city secretary for development affairs.
These agencies include the Jakarta Sanitation Agency, Public Works Agency, Housing Agency, Communications Agency and Environmental Management Agency.
"We hope that these agencies will be able to do better in 2004," said Koeswadi after the plenary session, which also heard reports from the council's four other commissions.
City Secretary Ritola Tasmaya was reluctant to comment on the failure to meet this year's budgetary spending targets, saying that he had not checked the latest figures on overall spending.
Ritola said that by the end of this year, total spending was expected to reach some 80 percent of the overall target.
He claimed that the administration had encountered various constraints in meeting the targets, including delayed starts to projects and changes in the budget structure.
Ritola said that the delayed starts were caused by holdups in the deliberation of the 2003 budget, which only ended in January.
As regards the budget's structure, in 2002 the budget had been divided into only two spending categories: development and routine spending, whereas in 2003 budget spending was differentiated into eight categories based on development sector.