Use of flood prevention funds 'must be transparent'
Use of flood prevention funds 'must be transparent'
JAKARTA (JP): A councilor has called for transparency in the
spending of a central government grant of Rp 93 billion to fund
the city administration's flood prevention projects this year.
Councilor Lukman Mokoginta from the council's Commission D for
development affairs said on Wednesday that the use of the funds
should be tightly controlled to allow as much as possible of the
money to be used to contain flooding which is expected to hit the
capital in the near future.
In the past, he said, funds for this purpose had invariably
been misused and the accounts not opened to public scrutiny.
As a result, flood prevention projects were never completed,
he added.
"We can see that every year we are hit by floods," Lukman
said, giving no further explanation.
"We should therefore leave behind all the (illegal) misuse of
flood prevention funds," the councilor said.
Lukman quoted the deputy head of the city's development
planning board, Irzal T. Djamal, as saying that the central
government through the National Development Planning Board was
about to hand over Rp 93 billion to the city administration to
fund flood prevention projects.
The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency (BMG) has repeatedly
warned Jakartans of the possibility of flooding as a result of
above average rainfall brought about by the La Nia weather
phenomenon.
Data from the city public works agency shows that 40 percent
of Jakarta is built on low lying areas and that river channels in
the city are extremely narrow.
Last month, Governor Sutiyoso said the administration was
facing a shortage of funds to take measures to guard against the
possibility of major flooding.
He said the administration would only be able to focus on
helping flood victims rather than taking precautionary measures
to prevent flooding, which he said could affect up to one-fifth
of Jakarta's 10 million population.
According to councilor Lukman, flood prevention projects in
the city should be conducted in conjunction with the West Java
administration because that is where water catchments which drain
into the sea through Jakarta are located. (ind)