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