Sutiyoso away to Pusan to attend regional meeting

Sutiyoso away to Pusan to attend regional meeting

JAKARTA (JP): In a move to anticipate harsh criticism over
city officials' costly lifestyles, Governor Sutiyoso decided to
drop his planned trips to a Latin America country and an European
country and accept a gratuitous invitation to a meeting of heads
of cities for the Asia-Pacific region in Pusan, South Korea.

The governor left for the South Korean city on Friday evening.

Earlier on Thursday, Sutiyoso said he decided to leave for
Pusan because he had to deliver a speech on city development in
the meeting following a proposal which he had earlier sent to the
committee.

"This trip will be of no burden to the City Budget as all of
my expenses will be covered by the Pusan city administration.

"Besides, I will go on the weekend," he said.

The meeting is slated for Saturday and Sunday. The governor is
expected to arrive home on Monday.

Besides Sutiyoso, Pusan will also cover the expenses for two
city officials -- head of City Protocol Office Margani Mustar and
head of Inter-City Cooperation Office Aurora Tambunan.

Debates on junkets by city officials have been very critical
in recent weeks after city councillors took turns visiting
several European countries in a so-called comparative study.

Many criticized the European trips as mere holidays, instead
of having productive and serious purpose.

Sutiyoso was initially scheduled to take a 12-day trip to
three countries.

However, he decided to prioritize his planned overseas trips
and take the most important ones only.

"I dropped the plan to visit Brazil to sign a sister-city
agreement with the city of Sao Paulo.

"I also dropped a planned visit to Sweden where I would have
discussed a planned donation of fire fighting equipment from the
Swedish government," he said.

"I can visit those countries later when the condition in our
country is getting better and our economy is already recovered.
But, I really have to go to Pusan," he added.

Another reason to cut the trips short was the fact that
Sutiyoso is concentrating on preparing his yearly accountability
speech to city councillors on June 2.

Many parties expect to topple him during the accountability
session, accusing him of being unable to run the administration
well.

However, City Council speaker Edy Waluyo said the speech was
only a progress report and would pose no threat to his
governorship.

"But if we find serious cases involving the governor, we can
summon him for a special accountability speech. If we find him
guilty, we can propose to the central government to dismiss him,"
he told reporters on Friday.

"The central government will have the full authority whether
to dismiss the governor or not," he said. (nvn)