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Jakarta's budget too lavish: NGOs
A coalition of 13 NGOs focussed on the city budget submitted a list of budgetry items they deemed as possible extravagances to the Home Ministry on Friday
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A coalition of 13 NGOs focussed on the city budget submitted a list of budgetry items they deemed as possible extravagances to the Home Ministry on Friday.
The ministry said it would judge whether the listed items clashed with other regulations and whether there was no authority for the amount allocated.
The coalition named Anti-poverty Public Movement (Garap) questioned the necessity of some budgeted expenditures. They said the amount budgeted for some items was extravagant and could lead to the misuse of funds.
According to the group, the amounts allocated for legislative members inauguration ceremony (Rp 906 million), speech writing for governor and vice governor (Rp 1.6 billion), SMS from the governor to the public (Rp 1.8 billion), sending 30 teachers to New Zealand for training (4.5 billion) and instrument purchase for the fire department (Rp 1 billion) were examples of indulgent spending.
Coalition executive Arief Rakhman said much of the budget was beyond the maximum limit set by the Finance Ministry in April 2008.
"For example, expenditure for laptops was budgeted at prices ranging from Rp 22 million to Rp 35 million, while the Finance Ministry set the limit at Rp 12 million," Arief said.
Agustinus Palebangan, head of the regional planning facilitation agency at the Home Ministry, greeted the group and said the expenses did not violate any regulations because the Finance Ministry's recommendations were only applicable to the state budget, not regional budgets.
"Each region creates its own list of standard costs. Of course, they should be in line (with the ministry's guidelines), but no regulation is broken when they are not," Agustinus said.
"Anyway prices range in different regions and only locals know the needs and prices specific to their regions.
"We may question them if we think items are extravagant, but we have no authority to say whether they are overpriced."
The ministry, he said, concentrated on checking if any expenses go into activities that break other regulations.
The ministry, for example, will question the Rp 21 billion allocation to local soccer club Persija because it goes against the regulation.
He said he questioned the amount allocated for purchasing instruments, and he received a reasonable explanation that the money was allocated to all agencies in Jakarta under the management of the fire department.
All in all, he said, the ministry had seen an improvement in terms of budget allocation, with the amount allocated to "social activities" reduced from hundreds of billions to Rp 35 billions.
The coalition also questioned the prioritizing of expenditures, stating that a lot of money was channeled into administrative activities, but very little into projects that directly benefited the public, such as training and health programs.
"Based on our calculations, only around 1.7 percent of the budget is for the poor. More money goes into public order activities than into empowering the poor through education," Arief said.
The ministry faces a 15-day deadline, until Jan. 2, to check the regional budget.
