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Budgets late for over 500 municipal, city units
The city administration has found that Rp 80
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The city administration has found that Rp 80.44 billion (US$8.74 million) of the 2007 city budget was not yet delivered to the administrative units responsible for the expenditure, the governor reported to the city council, during a plenary session on Monday.
Governor Fauzi Bowo said this was discovered during an internal audit that examined the accounts of 122 working units in the city administration and 436 units in the five municipalities covered by the city.
The Rp 80.44 billion figure consisted of Rp 76.24 billion that had not yet reached the 122 city working units, along with an Rp 4.2 billion deficit attributed jointly to various of the 436 units in the municipalities.
"(After receiving the report) we have sent out Rp 33.83 billion of the Rp 76.24 billion (budget alocations outstanding) and Rp 3.79 billion of the Rp 4.2 billion (funds for deficits still to be covered)," Fauzi told the City Council.
He said the city administration still had yet to ensure the transmission of an outstanding Rp 42.41 billion for the city administration for their 2007 budgets and Rp 740.01 million which had not yet been received by the municipalities to cover their 2007 working deficits.
"Of the audits of the 122 city administration working units, there are 23 cases that have yet to be resolved and 38 cases that are still being processed," he said.
The city administration held internal audits after the Supreme Audit Agency rejected in July the administration's 2007 financial report, saying there were too many discrepancies.
Most of the discrepancies were related to administrative problems, the governor said.
One of the administrative problems was found with the income cash flow report. The city administration put Rp 8.71 trillion in the city revenue, but recorded Rp 8.73 trillion in the reports.
Fauzi said the Rp 20.17 billion gap happened because the record of the city's fixed asset sales were not put in the cash flow of operations (recurrent expenditure), but in the cash flow of investment (capital).
He said he had ordered the working units to improve their procedures and standards of accounting to comply with recommendations made by the audit agency.
The agency is doing a 30-day investigative audit at each working unit where they have found discrepancies, he said.
The city administration has taken rectifying measures to improve the city's financial reports.
Besides establishing a team to perform asset inventory and mapping, the city administration has signed a three-year deal with the State Development Finance Comptroller to provide human resources for the city administration as well as support for anticorruption programs.
One of the units that had yet to receive its 2008 budget is the Jakarta Arts Council. Nefa Firman, a spokesperson at the council, said that the delayed disbursement of the city budget had delayed many of the council's programs.
The council's funding consists of 70 to 80 percent from the city budget and 20 to 30 percent from partners and sponsors. The council has experienced delayed budgets during several years. In 2006, the budget reached the council in June. In 2007, the council received the budget in July.
The 2008 city budget was approved in April, but until the end of July the council had not yet received funds allocated.
"The delays force us to hold our programs only in the last six months of each year," she said.
She said there were several programs that might have to be canceled, including Music Concert Programs in cooperation with foreign performers such as Jakarta Biennale and Literature Lantern.
