Four agencies grilled for slow disbursement

Indah Setiawati ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 11/02/2009 10:37 AM  |  City

Head of the Jakarta Financial Management Agency Sukri Bey said four city agencies had achieved poor disbursement rates this year.

The agencies, the parks and cemetery agency, the transportation agency, the disaster management and fire agency and the culture and tourism agency, disbursed 40 percent below average up to last month, he said.

“It [the absorption rate] is supposed to reach 55 percent,” Sukri said.

The city secretary Muhayat previously warned agency heads with low budget disbursement rates that their positions would be revaluated.

The transportation agency and the culture and tourism agency are among the five agencies that received the biggest share of the 2009 budget.

The administration’s online bidding site, pengadaan.jakarta.go.id, recorded that the transportation agency concluded the bidding application on Oct. 6 for the construction of a new bus terminal in Pulo Gebang, East Jakarta, worth Rp 28.7 billion.

The new bus station is a multi-year project that will cost Rp 519.7 billion.

The same site also stated that the disaster control and fire agency planned to procure medium pump vehicles worth Rp 42 billion and would purchase quick response fire fighting vehicles costing Rp 36 billion this year.

The city’s parks and cemetery agency received Rp 68 billion this year, Rp 1 billion of which was planned to revive the BMW park in Sunter, North Jakarta.  

Sukri said he urged all agencies to work harder because the city had targeted to disburse around Rp 9 trillion in the remainder of the year.

As of the third quarter of this year, the spending reached Rp 10.55 trillion, or 44.7 percent of the planned Rp 23.59 trillion.

The administration also proposed a slight increase of its budget to Rp 23.90 trillion to the city council last Wednesday.

Meanwhile, some agency heads remain confident about their disbursement rates.

Taufik Yudi Mulyanto, head of the education agency, said he was sure the agency could reach its target of 90 percent disbursement from its total Rp 698.50 billion budget by the end of this year.

“We did not have to spend the remaining 10 percent of the budget because tenders of some projects found bidders that could run the projects at low costs,” he said.  

Taufik said 70 percent of the disbursement was used for physical expenditure, including building and renovating schools, while the remaining was used for nonphysical expenditure such as service procurement and employee salaries.

Budiharjo, head of the social agency, reported that his agency had disbursed 70 percent of their budget allocation and made a financial report of 40 percent of the spending.     

“Most of the budget has been used to repair and build shelters,” he said.

He said the agency decided to cut spending for research projects, which were not considered to directly benefit residents.

Governor Fauzi Bowo conveyed a number of key programs expected to kick off in 2010.   

One of them is the allocation of Rp 300 billion for the construction of Pulogebang bus station.

The new bus station is expected to reduce heavy congestion around the Pulogadung bus station, which can no longer cater to the hectic levels of traffic.

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