Sleman chosen for budget program

Sleman chosen for budget program

YOGYAKARTA: The regency of Sleman will receive a Rp 2.5
billion grant from the group Building Institutions for Good
Governance (BIGG) to help it develop performance-based budget
transparency.

The grant also will help the regency develop an on-line
computer-based information system within two years.

Sleman Regent Ibnu Subiyanto said the grant would not be in
the form of cash, but in technical assistance and software design
and infrastructure.

"We are the only regency administration in the country to
receive the grant. The program will only be expanded to other
regencies if we successfully implement the program by 2005," he
said.

Subiyanto said he signed a memorandum of understanding with
the U.S.-based BIGG on Saturday, and that his administration was
preparing to begin implementing the program in 2004.

He said Sleman had already begun developing a performance-
based budget drafted on the basis of actual need rather than
routine expenses since 2001.

"Once the program is finished by 2005, all of the processes
and procedures for drafting and realizing the budget will be open
to public assessment through an on-line computer-based
information system," Subiyanto said. --JP