Jakarta's budget too lavish: NGOs

Mariani Dewi ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 12/20/2008 12:11 PM  |  City

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.

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Waway (not verified) — Mon, 12/22/2008 - 12:15pm

Amusing. Very Amusing.
No wonder the regional government has not been able to solve the never ending problem of Jakarta such as:

1. Traffic Congestion. Before the notorious Busway, do try enhancing the discipline of drivers on the road! here's an ironic example: look at flyovers, they're supposed to reduce congestion. They do actually work. But many times congestion happens.. why?? Buses and other public transports, including taxis can many times be seen to be parking covering 50% of the exit of those flyovers, right under "no stop" and "no parking" road signs. You do realize that a lot of fuel is burned in traffic jams don't you? what happened to energy efficiency?

2. Floods. The answer to Jakarta's floods is not rafts. it is a temporary solution. Do try cleaning up all, and I mean all drainages in Jakarta! including those small "sewers" which are nicely filled with trash to the top! And also, the the eastern canal.. please use all those money for laptops and speeches that no one will ever hear for paying the lands needed for that canal! And don't say that many parts of Jakarta is under sea level. Look at the Netherlands!

3. Public spaces! trees, parks, place for children to play.. we have enough malls already..

4. street crimes

5. and so on.

laptops may be needed, but not those priced 35 millions per piece.. 7 million is enough! Oh yeah.. fire fighters need all the fund they can get.. all the newest equipment and infrastructures! and train them to do other things as well, and give them fund and infrastructures for that as well.. including larger salary if necessary...

The citizen of Jakarta have a lot to say for the administration of their city.. but despite being in the age of free flow information, they are almost never heard...

David K. — Sat, 12/20/2008 - 9:07pm

There are speech writers for government officials? The way I see it they seem to just sorta "wing it" or make things up on the spot. for that amount of money they should have speeches prepared on par with the United States President and his government representatives.

True there are many things that the government has no idea what it is doing in the terms of spending, but it's not the NGO's (whom I loath and I think each and every NGO out there is out to just destroy this country) responsibility to tell them what to spend on.

It's funny that the government set budgets for Laptops, because I've never seen an Indonesian official or their employees working outside their office especially outside government working time of oh 10:30 Am to 12 Am and 2 pm to 4 pm/carry a laptop around/now that I think about it I've never seen a government official or employee actually have a laptop.

The main one I noticed is the fire department equipment. I wonder if they would be complaining about that if their houses were on fire and the fire department could not put it out effectively due to lack of equipment.

But one thing that the government should look into spending less on or at least getting what they paid for is their inflated priced seminars. I've been to a few and questioned the pricing, and I find the bloated figures amusing.

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