Miscount puts city in funding freefall

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 01/15/2007 4:09 PM  |  Jakarta

Adisti Sukma Sawitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The City Council announced Saturday an administration budget shortage of as much as Rp 1.1 trillion (US$118.2), allegedly due to a miscalculation of 2006's reserves.

The Council said that it had discovered earlier this month that the available reserve was only Rp 1.8 trillion, lower than the Rp 2.9 million that had been stated in a bylaw and proposed to the Home Ministry.

The shortage will create a budget deficit and could result in the cancellation of several of Rp 21.5 trillion in programs that are set to go ahead this year.

Head of Commission E for public Welfare Dani Anwar said over the weekend that such a large budget gap had never happened before in the Sutiyoso administration, although miscalculations often occurred during budget preparation.

""Instead of having such a large budget shortage, the administration often experiences budget surpluses due to miscalculations in the cost of the administration's programs,"" he said.

He said that when the Home Affairs Ministry removed some Rp 500 billion from the 2006 budget last year since it had not been clearly allocated to one of the administration's related agencies.

Syauqi Yahya, head of the administration's finance bureau, confirmed the shortage in this year's budget but said he was still recalculating the reserve.

The City Council and the administration had public disagreements last year over the 2007 budget, with Governor Sutiyoso complaining about its size.

On one occasion, Sutiyoso said it was ""funny"" that the Council had approved the Rp 21.5 trillion budget even though the administration had only proposed Rp 20.5 trillion. He later signed the bylaw confirming the budget.

Mohammad Mansyur, a member of the City Council's budget team, said there had been no problems in this year's budget discussion.

""Reserve calculations are never 100 percent correct until the Supreme Audit Agency reports its audit of the reserve,"" he said.

Commenting on Sutiyoso's complaints about the budget's total, Mansyur said that shouldn't have been a problem because the governor had signed the bylaw.

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