Blame game on school repair budget

Jakarta Education Agency officials are scrambling to look for emergency funds after the agency’s budget to repair schools in 2011 was cut by the City Council, which approved instead earmarks that had not been proposed.

Governor Fauzi Bowo said Wednesday that the education agency would have to make cuts and delay in a number of programs to set aside money for a school repair project for 58 schools this year.

“There is still an allocation for school repairs in the 2011 Budget, but not as much as we have proposed. Some parts of the repair proposal was disapproved by the Council,” Fauzi said.

There are a total of 293 elementary school buildings and 53 junior high school buildings that really need repair, according to the education agency.

The governor said that the Council approved instead allocations of questionable urgency and claimed that the allocations had never been proposed by the education agency.

“The Council added a total of Rp 80 billion [US$8.88 million] to the education agency budget for a number of programs which we never proposed,” he said.

Among the programs surprisingly added was the construction of biology labs at a number of junior high schools worth Rp 7.8 billion and procurement of encyclopedias for elementary schools worth Rp 3.5 billion.

“Biology labs are not a priority for junior high schools. Encyclopedias are also not priorities for elementary students; They have already received central government educational aid funds to buy books,” Fauzi said.

Separately Triwisaksana, a City Council budgetary commission member, said that the council decided to cut the school reparation program because it was considered too fat.

“The Council preferred to cut the budget on reparation and put priority on school activities that need quick disbursements of funds. A small reparation can be delayed,” said the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) councilor.

However, Triwisaksana said that the administration was welcome to propose a budget revision for the reparation.

Education Agency head Taufik Yudi Mulyanto said that the city was planning to repair a total of 58 schools across the city, which included a major overhaul 18 schools and reconstruction of two schools.

Taufik said that the city was supposed to repair 40 of 58 schools in 2010. “We did not complete the repair last year because we had only limited funds,” he said. Throughout 2010, the agency only managed to repair three schools of 43 planned.

In 2010, the agency had been planning to make a total improvement on 22 elementary school buildings, 20 junior high schools and rebuilding a new school, which in total would have cost Rp 295.25 billion.

The City Council approved last month the Rp 27.9 trillion 2011 city budget. Some Rp 8.06 trillion of the budget is supposed to go to education. The central government has also added a Rp 552.71 billion educational aid fund in the budget.