Public services to function as usual

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.