D

ue to the new centralized procurement system, the city administration has predicted that budget spending this year will be much lower than the targeted 97 percent.

Jakarta Financial Management Board (BPKD) head Endang Widjajanti said Wednesday that in the third quarter, the city administration'€™s budget spending had reached only 30 percent of the total Rp 72 trillion (US$6 billion).

Endang said the low budget spending was mostly caused by the new procurement process at the Goods and Services Procurement Agency (ULP).

'€œAll the bidding processes, previously taken care of by each agency and working unit, are now handled solely by ULP, so it is quite overwhelmed,'€ she said.

She said another cause of the low budget spending was the land acquisition program.

'€œWe have a new regulation that land acquisition should be planned one year prior.'€

Endang said, however, budget spending in the same quarter last year was not that different, reaching around 40 percent.

Last year, the city administration managed to catch up in the last quarter and eventually spent 82 percent of its total Rp 50.1 trillion budget, higher than 2012'€™s achievement of 80 percent.

ULP head I Gede Dewa Soni Aryawan said as of Tuesday, his unit had received 6,879 bidding proposals from agencies and working units.

'€œWe are now processing 2,988 packages with total funding of Rp 11.56 trillion,'€ he said. The unit had finalized the bidding on 1,978 other packages, he added.

In addition to the ULP bidding process, some activities were processed through e-purchasing. '€œTwenty six out of 52 packages have been finalized, valued at around
Rp 171.85 billion,'€ he said.

Jakarta Deputy Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama said the low budget absorption was not necessarily the fault of the ULP as many agencies had failed to complete their bidding documents.

Beside being centralized, the bidding process is also more complicated as each agency and working unit should include more detailed bidding documents.

Ahok said, however, that he did not mind the condition. '€œAs long as the money is not misused or stolen.'€

Ahok said the he would push spending next year and would closely monitor the working units to prevent them from making excuses and encourage them to efficiently implement their programs.

'€œThis year, they [agencies and working units] are blaming the difficult bidding mechanism. Next year, we will procure more from the electronic catalog [e-catalog],'€ he said.

The city is now intensifying efforts to put as many products as possible in the Government Procurement Regulatory Body'€™s (LKPP) e-catalog, so the city can directly buy products without a tender
process.

Ahok previously said that the city would shift procurement rights from agencies to district and subdistrict offices to speed up the process.

Darmanto, of the Indonesian Budget Center, said the low budget spending showed that the plan was inadequate.

'€œThe City Council passed the city budget in March. It should have been done in December 2013,'€ he said, adding that the executive should ensure that the 2015 budget process was not tardy.