Public services to function as usual
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Provincial administrations that have not yet submitted their 2002 draft budgets to their respective legislatures will be able to cover routine spending and deliver public services as normal.
Citing technical reasons, the South Sulawesi and Irian Jaya administrations have yet to submit draft budgets for the 2002 fiscal year to their provincial legislative councils.
Agus Sumantri, spokesman for the South Sulawesi provincial administration, said Governor H.Z.B. Palaguna would not be able to submit the province's draft budget to the provincial legislature until next week because an internal discussion among relevant officials in the administration was still going on.
"Despite being late, we are optimistic that the draft budget will be endorsed before Jan. 1, 2002 and this will not affect public services in the province," he told The Jakarta Post in Makassar on Wednesday.
He said that, based on past experience, the special committee that would be set up to consider the draft budget would be able to complete its work and endorse the budget within a week.
Ramli Haba, a member of the provincial legislature's Commission C on economic and budgetary affairs, called on the governor to submit the draft budget to allow the legislature sufficient time to deliberate on it.
"The legislature must study the draft budget to make it effective in tackling all the problems the province is facing. The draft budget must be adjusted to reflect priorities that the legislature has proposed the executive adopt during the next fiscal year," he said.
Separately, Paulus Sumino, chairman of the Irian Jaya provincial legislature's Commission on economic and budgetary affairs, said the provincial administration and legislature had agreed to delay compiling the draft budget until February 2002 in line with the implementation of special autonomy beginning on Jan. 1, 2002.
"We are waiting for the handover by the president of the special autonomy law on Dec. 22, 2001. We have agreed to draw up the draft budget after we know the province's revenue situation under special autonomy," he said.
He said the provincial administration would use the additional funds disbursed to the province under the present budget to finance public services throughout January and February 2002.
The province has secured Rp 168.99 billion in additional funds from the central government to cover public services for the January and February period, he added.
In Bandung, West Java, Governor R. Nuriana said the provincial legislature was soon expected to endorse the 2002 draft budget to ensure the province's timely receipt of the funds allocated from the state budget to finance public services in the province and a portion of the province's development projects.
"The endorsement of the province's 2002 budget is urgently needed because it also includes funds that will be allocated by the central government to pay civil servants and to finance some of the development projects in the province," he said after presenting his response to the legislature's reactions to the draft budget in a plenary session here on Tuesday.
Other provinces, including North Sumatra and East Java, are still deliberating their draft budgets to be endorsed ahead of January 2002.