'Aspiration fund' idea shows lack of budgeting priorities on regions: Lawmaker

The growing idea of an aspiration funds shows the budgeting policies are not yet sufficient to serve the interests of the regions, a legislator says.

"There has to be a re-evaluation on the development planning system and its budgeting formulation, so that the budget allocation managed by the central government can be further prioritized to the regions, in line with the regional autonomy policy," Mahfudz Siddiq from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Previously, the Golkar Party at the House and the House of Regional Representatives Council proposed the aspiration fund idea, whose concept is to allocate Rp 1 billion to each village in the country.

The idea meets heavy criticism from various political parties and civil groups because they deem it is prone to misuse and corruption.

Mahfudz said that if the current idea went through, it would cause chaos in the development planning system and increase the potential of budgeting misuse.

"The government and the House must make a breakthrough on this issue before the President delivers the 2011 state budget note in August," he said.