Councilors largely content with draft budget

Indah Setiawati ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 11/03/2009 1:06 PM  |  City

The City Council has shown its support for most key programs proposed by the administration in the 2010 budget, during a plenary session held Monday.

Councilors from the Democratic Party lauded the city's Subdistrict Community Empowerment Program (PPMK), a funding scheme to disburse Rp 233 billion (US$24.3 million) to cooperatives and small and medium enterprises across the city's 267 subdistricts.

Represented by Nawawi, the party called on prospective recipients of the funding to "be professional".

"People in the cooperatives have to be professional in their finances to avoid repeating the mistakes of past disbursements," he said.

Golkar councilor Ashraf Ali said cooperatives managing micro credit funds should be able to guide PPMK creditors to develop their enterprises.

He added the party also hoped to see an improvement in public services at district and subdistrict offices, after the city proposed a Rp 968.2 billion budget allocation for that purpose.

Most councilors also urged the city to study the possibility of rolling out a free 12-year education program.

"Seeing that economic growth in the city increases every year, the PKS *Prosperous Justice Party* believes Jakarta's budget has sufficient capacity to gradually realize the program," said the Islamic-based party's Nurmansyah Lubis.

With regard to city-owned assets, councilors urged greater discipline in managing title deeds, to prevent ownership disputes arising.

Matnoor Tindoan, from the United Development Party (PPP), lamented the poor performance of the administration's legal affairs bureau, which he said had lost the city many of its assets.

The most recent high-profile dispute was that over the land on which the former West Jakarta municipality office was built, on Jl. Let. Jend. Supratman in West Jakarta.

The land was claimed by the Sawerigading Foundation, which was recognized by a district court and the Supreme Court as the legal owner.

Last month, the city administration proposed increasing its 2010 budget by 1.3 percent from the current budget, to Rp 23.91 trillion.

The draft budget puts emphasis on public services and education.

In his budget presentation to the City Council, Governor Fauzi Bowo said public services would account for 30 percent of the budget, while education would get 25 percent.

Another 10.4 percent is proposed for projects to spur economic growth, including in transportation, manpower and SMEs.

But a plan to buy more Transjakarta buses was met with criticism.

The PKS's Nurmansyah said the procurement should be handed over to the Transjakarta operators rather than city agencies, for greater efficiency, while Nawawi said the Democratic Party feared the procurement could lead to a dispute between the city and the consortium.

The 2010 budget to develop the Transjakarta busway is Rp 365.34 billion, and includes the purchase of buses for corridors 9 and 10, land acquisition, construction of shelters, and lane maintenance.

The previous City Council had approved Rp 75 billion from the revised 2009 budget for the initial payment for the buses.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.