City councillors accused of 'deceit'

Mustaqim Adamrah and Tifa Asrianti , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 02/18/2008 1:33 PM | Headlines

The City Council is trying to deceive Jakartans by making "slight changes" to the 2008 draft budget, said non-profit organization, Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta).

Fakta coordinator Azas Tigor Nainggolan said on Sunday city councillors had taken advantage of the 2008 draft budget during their last meeting by "allegedly inserting their own projects of interests".

He said he found irregularities in the draft budget, including a Rp 843.56 billion (US$92 million) cut made to the city administration's proposed priority programs.

"The council has omitted during its last deliberations an extensive number of programs worth more than Rp 3 trillion and has allocated the money for programs that we don't actually need or that don't make any sense," he said.

The council has raised the draft budget to Rp 20.59 trillion from the Rp 20 trillion the Jakarta administration originally proposed, after dramatically changing numerous proposed programs.

The council, which earlier passed the draft budget on Jan. 18, endorsed the new budget and new amount after the administration requested a budget review on Jan. 15.

The request was made because the administration earlier proposed Rp 78.4 billion for busway development this year, lower than the initially discussed Rp 395 billion to build 61 bus stops in three new corridors.

Following the major changes, Azas said the administration must examine the draft budget thoroughly before submitting it to the home ministry on Tuesday.

"The home minister must also learn about these loopholes and do the best it can for the people before giving approval," he said.

Chairman of the council's Commission C on Finance Affairs, Daniel Abdullah Sani, said it was the council's budgetary right to make changes to the draft budget.

"We have the right to eliminate programs that we think are not necessary, or to include programs that we see as important," he told The Jakarta Post.

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