Central Jakarta Mayor Saefullah, who was sworn in as new secretary to the Jakarta administration on Friday, vowed to focus on optimizing the spending of the city'€™s huge 2014 budget.

Early into this year'€™s second semester, only 21 percent of the city'€™s Rp 72 trillion (US$6.21 billion) budget has been spent and absorbed to finance the city'€™s development programs.

Saefullah said he would dive into coordinating with all agencies, especially the Jakarta Goods and Services Procurement Unit (ULP), to speed up tenders so that the remainder of the budget was evenly spent throughout the second semester.

'€œWe will look into why tender completion has been so slow. We will try to provide an explanation and find a solution,'€ he said.

According to most officials, one of the main reasons behind the low-budget absorption is the new bidding system, which centralizes bidding under the ULP, as agencies have yet to grow accustomed to the new system that requires them to submit detailed bidding documents, including a detailed price list.

As of June, the unit has so far only completed the tender of 68 out of a total 5,114 development program packages. Meanwhile, 632 are now being tendered while 86.31 percent or 4,414 packages have been hindered by technical and administrative issues.

Saefullah, who will hold two positions for the time being, said he would push all agencies and working units to complete their tender documents so all development programs could be carried out faster.

He said, however, that he declined to set a budget spending achievement target. '€œThe mapping of problems in budget spending will be finished within one or two days. After that, I can disclose what is to be prioritized,'€ he said.

He added that the mapping would also be useful to help finalize the 2014 revised budget bill.

Asked about his strategy to keep up with acting Jakarta governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama'€™s temperamental and fast-working leadership style, Saefullah, who now occupies the highest position for civil servants in the city administration, said he was optimistic that he could rise to the challenge.

'€œI have to be ready to pull up my pants and run with him, so I will not be left behind,'€ he said.

Regarding street vendors and traffic congestion in the area surrounding Tanah Abang market in Central Jakarta, he said he would develop a grand design to cope with the issues comprehensively.

'€œWe cannot resolve the Tanah Abang issue partially, we need a grand design to settle this big problem,'€ he said.

Severe gridlock once again mars the roads surrounding the biggest Southeast Asian garment market after street vendors who had been relocated by non-active Jakarta governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo last September returned to the sidewalks.

Saefullah, who has been a civil servant in the city administration since 1988, was appointed city secretary after passing a screening test. He was one of three city secretary candidates proposed to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The two others were Jakarta Tourism and Culture Agency head Arie Budhiman and the city secretary'€™s assistant for people'€™s welfare, Bambang Sugiyono.

'€œSome officials actually got high scores in the competency test. However, they are too old and would enter their mandatory retirement age very soon,'€ he said.

Saefullah, who graduated from the Muhammadiyah Teaching Institute in 1988 and earned his PhD from Padjajaran University in Bandung, West Java, in 2009, occupied the positions of deputy head of the Education Agency in 2008 and head of the Sports and Youth Agency in 2008 before he was promoted to Central Jakarta mayor in 2010.

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