T

he Public Works Ministry will be forced to cancel a number of important road and clean water projects if President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono goes ahead with his plan to cut nearly a third of its budget, a senior ministry official has said.

Danis H. Sumadilaga, senior advisor to the public works minister, said in Jakarta on Thursday that the state budget retrenchment would seriously affect the ministry'€™s program to build new roads and provide greater access for low-income families to clean water.

For this reason, he added, the ministry planned to formally request a reduction of the proposed cut of Rp 22.7 trillion (US$1.97 billion) from the ministry'€™s original Rp 84.1 trillion budget.

'€œIf the budget is cut by Rp 22.7 trillion, how will the ministry carry out its development program? We need to study it first, as most of the ministry'€™s budget is used to finance infrastructure projects,'€ Danis said.

He explained, however, that the ministry would not achieve its target of having 95 percent of the country'€™s roads in mint condition by the end of this year if the budget cut went ahead.

'€œThen there are our clean water projects, for which we have set a target that 68.87 percent of people in the country will have access to clean water by 2015, as stated in the MDGs [Millenium Development Goals]. This target may also be missed,'€ he said.

The ministry'€™s director general for Cipta Karya, which oversees the construction of public housing, state buildings, utilities, clean water and sanitation facilities, previously said that it aimed to surpass the MDG target, and that the ministry was confident it could provide access to clean water for at least 70 percent of the population by next year.

Danis added that other affected projects included the ministry'€™s sanitation projects and irrigation projects that aim to support food security.

'€œWe are not able to present the summary of our proposal as it is still being discussed, but we have prepared several alternatives for budget cuts, so the reduction won'€™t be so great,'€ he said.

Danis said that of the ministry'€™s total Rp 84.1 trillion budget, around Rp 43 trillion had been allocated for roads and thoroughfares, Rp 21 trillion was planned for clean water projects and Rp 17 trillion was allocated to Cipta Karya.

'€œI don'€™t know the reason for the heavy cuts in infrastructure but they will definitely affect our projects,'€ he said.

Another ministry that is due to experience a significant budget cut is the Transportation Ministry, with its operational budget of Rp 40.4 trillion set to be trimmed by Rp 10.1 trillion.

Transportation Minister EE Mangindaan said his ministry would cut travel expenses, delay the procurement of official cars and halt construction on a new building intended to hold training sessions for ministerial staff.

The President has instructed that Rp 100 trillion be cut from the 2014 state budget in order to cope with the widening budget deficit.