Jakarta Panwaslu ready for election despite budget problems

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 06/04/2009 9:27 PM  |  Jakarta

Despite a limited operating budget, the Jakarta Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) has given assurances the problem will not affect its performance in the upcoming presidential elections.

“Our main concern is never about the money, but on how we ensure that our officers maintain their integrity [to perform their jobs],” Ramdansyah, the Jakarta Panwaslu chairman told The Jakarta Post in a phone interview Thursday.

He admitted that 10 officers had resigned due to Panwaslu's inability to pay them better salaries but the agency had replaced them with new employees.

The Jakarta Panwaslu, which has the authority to supervise the election in the province and bring election violations to court, manages 267 Field Supervisory Committee (PPL) officers in subdistricts and 132 officers at district level.

The low salary remains a big problem for the PPL officers.

A PPL officer, who covers one subdistrict, earns Rp 380,000 (US$37.62) a month plus a transportation fee of Rp 50,000, while a Panwaslu district officer gets a total of Rp 1 million. Both figures are lower than the city’s regional minimum salary, which stands at Rp 1.1 million.

The Jakarta Panwaslu requested an additional budget of Rp 26 billion from the city administration, which had reportedly approved only Rp 15 billion.

However, Ramdansyah said there was no sign yet when the Jakarta Panwaslu would receive the money although it had reduced its request to Rp 10 billion.

“I’m not expecting much. If we get the money, we can at least give our field officers an additional Rp 500,000 to cover their monthly transportation costs,” he said. (hwa)

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