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Jakarta Post

Fauzi to cut 78 percent of projects for 2009 budget

To boost performance of all working units and increase efficiency, the city administration will eliminate 32,000 programs from the 2009 city budget

Tifa Asrianti (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, September 3, 2008

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Fauzi to cut 78 percent of projects for 2009 budget

To boost performance of all working units and increase efficiency, the city administration will eliminate 32,000 programs from the 2009 city budget.

Governor Fauzi Bowo said Tuesday he would reduce the number of programs in the working units from 41,000 to 9,000 next year as he found the program executions ineffective.

"The administration currently has about 41,000 projects and 91,000 civil servants. It means on the average two people for every program and it should be five to 10 per program. As a result, the programs are not efficiently carried out," he said.

Critics have said the city's working units often could not meet their targets. They plan a lot of programs but not all are successfully executed.

Fauzi said the huge number of programs in each working unit was caused by lack of control.

The City Council, however, has a different approach to the situation.

Ilal Ferhard, deputy spokesperson for the City Council, said budget and program changes should be made in conjunction with the councilors, that changes should not be made by the governor alone.

"The city administration does not need to cut programs. They should figure out why an agency is unable to carry out its agenda. Perhaps it is due to an inadequate time frame or because the officer in charge is incompetent. The governor must put the right man in the right place," he said.

The city administration has tried to improve its operations after being criticized for the delayed budget disbursement and for inadequate budget management.

In July, the Supreme Audit Agency returned the city's financial report due to its many irregularities. The agency said some could be classified as administrative errors, but others could be perceived as graft.

This year, the revised city budget was finally approved last week, with an additional Rp 143 billion (US$15.7 million) on top of the agreed Rp 20.25 trillion.

Fauzi said if everyone followed regulations and worked within the budgeted amount, there would be no need for an increase.

He said the administration would propose 2009's budget in Oct. of this year in order to avoid delayed budget disbursement as was experienced this year.

"We will submit the draft budget early. We expect budget deliberations to be finished in Dec. so funds can be disbursed to all working units in Jan. 2009," he said.

A delayed budget approval leads to delayed funds disbursement. This year's budget was approved in March and disbursed in April. As a result, budget expenditure was at 17.3 percent as of June, lower than the projected 40 percent.

Fauzi said he was optimistic the 2009 budget would be set at Rp 21 trillion.

Ilal said the administration would be able to execute the planned budget as long as it received funds from the central government.

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