Councilors promise action in delivering 'people's budget'

Tifa Asrianti ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 02/25/2008 12:02 PM  |  City

Several members of City Council would launch a caucus for a "pro poor" budget March, focusing on affordable health and education.

National Mandate Party (PAN) faction's Syamsidar Siregar said the launch, which would be held at the next plenary session (also endorsing a bylaw for HIV/AIDS prevention), would be an opportunity for other members to learn about the caucus' activities.

"We're trying to attract other members to join the caucus. In future, we want more council members be involved in budget-making discussions," Syamsidar told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Syamsidar hoped the caucus would be able to check whether the budget actually helps poor families.

"The budget should be pro poor. In the draft budget, the health budget amounts to Rp 250 billion (around US$27 million)," she said, adding that "the figure is not enough because the number of poor people is also increasing."

The caucus currently had only around 10 members, out of 75 members of what?, she said.

The caucus was facilitated by the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), a non governmental organization focusing on the transparency of budget-making.

The caucus' formation followed the previous meeting held last October which discussed the 2008 budget and criticized the 2007 budget, she said.

Yuna Farhan, deputy to the secretary general of Fitra, said the caucus was expected to become the driving force for change.

"If Jakarta City Council succeeds in working with this caucus we could encourage other provinces to implement the same thing," Yuna said.

"The multiplier effect would be huge," she added.

Syamsidar said the caucus had planned several programs for this year, such as the issuance of a bylaw on public participation and workshops for the effective dissemination of information to the public.

"We hope the caucus will make the budget process more transparent and help the public understand and appreciate our work," she said.

Yuna said besides improving the budget process, the caucus would also improve the capacity of the council by holding frequent discussions with members from councils of four other areas, including West Sumatra, Yogyakarta and Central Sulawesi.

Donggala regency (Central Sulawesi) caucus members had allowed village women to participate in the budget-making procedure by distributing the budget proposal to villages to gain input, Yuna said.

"We hope Jakarta can implement the same thing," he said.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.