Rais calls for trustworthy officials

JAKARTA (JP): Deputy Governor for Economic and Development Affairs Tb. Rais said plans on the collection of city revenue should be thorough and realistic.

He said yesterday that plans must take into account not only the existing potential, but the "aspirations of the public toward a clean and respected government apparatus".

City revenue, he said, can only be increased if officials are upright.

"Hence the public would trust them better," he said.

Rais did not elaborate further but touched on the public's reluctance to pay various fees.

On Tuesday the sanitation agency announced it had enlisted the help of other government offices to get more people to pay sanitation fees.

In markets, for instance, traders complain of paying the fees while trash is frequently not collected.

Rais was addressing a meeting to plan the city revenue for the 1996/1997 fiscal year.

In the 1995/1996 fiscal year, the revenue from various fees increased by only 8.9 percent from 1994/1995.

In comparison, city taxes increased by 21.2 percent and profit from city-owned companies rose 104.9 percent.

The set target for the annual city revenue collected is an increase of 20 percent to 40 percent, Rais said.

Parking

He specifically requested the head of the city parking agency, the head of the sanitation agency and the head of the terminal management, to make their managements more effective and improve their public services.

The collection of fees from the parking agency has been a problem for years, with revenue reaching Rp 11 billion in the 1995/1997 fiscal year, only 67.4 percent of the Rp 16.3 billion target.

He said that next year's city budget is Rp 2.9 billion, of which 62.01 is expected to come from city revenue. He said the budget is 9.28 percent higher than last year's budget of Rp 2.7 billion. (26/anr)