Tangerang has yet to see autonomy law implemented

Tangerang has yet to see autonomy law implemented

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang, Banten

Regional autonomy, which has technically been a part of the law
since 2000, has yet to bear fruit in Tangerang municipality which
will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Feb. 28.

The Law No. 22/1999 on regional autonomy addresses the
importance of establishing good local governance, which will in
turn improve the people's welfare in respective regions and
provide better transparency as well as better services to the
public.

But under the leadership of Mayor M. Thamrin, the Tangerang
municipality has failed to show much achievement as required in
the law.

Ibnu Jandi, director of the Institute for Public Policy
Assessment (LKP), a local watchdog dealing with the assessment of
the administration's performance, said Thamrin, the mayor since
1998, had failed to fulfill the objectives on the implementation
of regional autonomy.

"Did the administration repair damaged roads, build permanent
road access into villages across the municipality, renovate
damaged school buildings, repair street lights, improve
traditional markets, bus terminals, slum villages, parks or
tackle traffic chaos? I see no evidence," he said.

After researching the allocations of the administration's 2002
annual budget, Jandi claimed he had found that more than Rp 50
billion (US$5.5 million) allocated for 14 development projects in
the municipality had been misused and that the projects were not
completed. The 2002 budget was set at Rp 326 billion.

"Many budgeted programs were not completed, nor accounted for.
And some of them had even been budgeted twice under routine
expenses," he said.

Jandi cited the Rp 1.4 billion funds for an urban innovation
management project, another Rp 100 million for a bylaw
dissemination program, Rp 600 million just for the meetings on
the city's spatial plan, Rp 200 million for the establishment of
a regional development program (Properda), another Rp 200 million
for the administration's development control, Rp 50 million for
monitoring activities, another Rp 50 million for regional
development planning, Rp 150 million for public facility
development projects and Rp 500 million for the support of
political parties.

In addition to allocating Rp 350 million for the purchase of
equipment for the city's tap water company (PDAM), the
administration also double-allocated a fund worth Rp 224.2
million to purchase furniture for PDAM, he said.

The purchase of furniture should have only been budgeted under
the routine expenses of the company, but it was also placed under
development expenses.

Meanwhile, some 13 districts in the municipality have
complained that, as of today, there had been no delegation of
authority from the mayoralty administration to them as required
by the regional autonomy law.

All districts believed that the absence of delegated authority
from the municipal administration to district administrations was
based on the municipal administration's fear that districts were
incapable of carrying out the delegated functions to serve the
public, such as issuing business and building permits or
supervising development projects.

Tony Wismantoro of the Tangerang Government Watch (TGW),
however, said the failure should not be entirely blamed on
the administration alone.

"The municipal legislative council also contributed to the
failure. It has approved the proposed budget without involving
local residents, particularly public figures, experts,
professionals and non-governmental organizations."

Both Jandi and Tony also criticized the construction of an
administrative office center at a budgeted price of Rp 68
billion.

The office center, along with the new Grand Mosque and the
Cikokol flyover, will be officially inaugurated during the
municipality's 10th anniversary on Feb. 28.