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President summons governors on global crisis
The Jakarta Post | Wed, 10/15/2008 2:59 PM | National
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has summoned all governors to Jakarta for a briefing at the State Secretary’s office on Wednesday 2 p.m. on the global financial crisis.Yudhoyono, accompanied by Vice President Jusuf Kalla, will address them on how the crisis would affect the country’s economy and how to respond accordingly.
He is expected to urge the governors to expedite all process for budget disbursement so as to boosting domestic consumption amid an expected decline in global demand for Indonesia’s products. (and)
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Henry Manoe (not verified) — Wed, 10/15/2008 - 4:16pm
Under the autonomy laws the regent/bupati has sole responsibility for regency/kabupaten budget expenditure; not the governors. The last have a coordinating function which cannot override the authority of the regent. Perhaps the President's meeting with the Governors is for them to pass on his message to expedite budget release and expenditure. There is one problem which has plagued many regency governments and that is lack of capacity to even spend part of their annual budgets. The unexpended funds are being kept in "government" bank accounts accruing interest and growing larger. What the purpose of these funds in future are is unclear, because capacity to spend is only marginally growing while the need for expenditure on (say) basic services and infrastructure is real and urgent. Perhaps the most “needy” regions, such as all of the regency in the province of NTT, should still get assistance from Central Government to deal with this dilemma. However, politically, that is of course a step back in the democratization process of which decentralization/autonomy is supposed to be the cornerstone. In any case, decentralization to the regency level never was a good and tenable idea and should have focussed on the provincial level rather than the many totally unprepared regions that now squander development funds on irrelevant pet projects that bring money to politicians and their friends.
Henry Manoe
Kupang, NTT