The city administration has allocated Rp 47.6 billion (US$5 million) this year into the budget, more than double last year's allocation, an analyst from the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) says.
The fund, distributed in 18 agencies at the provincial and municipal level, was allocated for programs that include evictions and raids to deter penniless illegal residents from the city.
Arief Rachman, Fitra's advocacy division coordinator said that the allocation was a waste of money and ineffective in solving Jakarta's urban problems.
"People arrive each year, and the administration will allocate a bigger budget for evictions," he said.
Fitra calculated that at the provincial level, the budget allocation included Rp 1 billion for Operasi Yustisi, or raid operations, preventing those who arrive to the city without proper documents; Rp 11.5 billion for the public order agency, Rp 9.7 billion for public order officer uniforms and Rp 2 billion for evictions.
Meanwhile, each of the city's five municipalities have allocated Rp 475 million to Rp 4.4 billion for its public order division.
The North and South Jakarta municipalities allocated a total of Rp 2.1 billion for evictions. Fitra also reported that The Jakarta Public Works Agency allocated Rp 20 billion for evictions.
"From budget allocation for evictions, there are no programs or budget allocation for post-eviction programs," Arief said.
Arief said the Jakarta administration spent too much money im-proving the city's appearance, ignoring social and economical challenges.
"It's like putting makeup on Jakarta, but letting it sick," he said.
Jakarta has a total city budget of Rp 24.67 trillion this year.
While spending on public order more than doubled, education, health and public works received budget cuts of 1.51 percent.
Spending on education stood at around Rp 5.46 trillion, or 22.86 percent of the total budget. Meanwhile, health and public works received Rp 1.95 trillion and Rp 4.75 trillion consecutively.
Fitra's investigation and advocacy chief Ucok Sky Khadafi said that the city administration should avoid spending budget unwisely.
He said the Jakarta administration and City Council should eliminate budget allocation that was repressive toward people living in poverty.
"There should be programs that empower people living in poverty," he said.
Separately, City secretary Muhayat denied that budget allocation for public order was identical to budget for evictions.
"The budgets are allocated to safeguard areas from being occupied. The five municipalities allocate funds for public order to save their assets," he said.
Muhayat said that several areas that are orderly should be maintained so that small violations did not grow.
He added that in the past, the administration enabled people to build homes in public spaces, and would evict squatters after they grew into a huge settlement.
"Now we're preventing that."
Muhayat said the problem of urbanization was national, and the responsibility did not lie solely with the Jakarta administration.
"We have cooperation with other provinces. We also limit opportunities to move to Jakarta by limiting areas for sidewalk vendors to reduce the rate of urbanization," he said.
