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fter three months of discussions and deadlock, the City Council is vowing to form commissions and appoint their personnel next week.

In order to start working, the City Council must divide its 106 councilors into five commissions: Commission A overseeing governance, Commission B on the economy, Commission C on finance, Commission D on development and Commission E on people'€™s welfare. Each commission should have a chairman, a deputy and members from the political party factions.

Since their inaugurations in August, the councilors have yet to nominate commission heads and members and have yet to work effectively to complete important tasks, including the 2015 budget bill.

During budget deliberations, agencies conduct meetings with related commission chairpersons and members to deliberate on projects and on the amount of funds needed for the 2015 budget. Without the commissions, discussions and meetings cannot be conducted.

City Council speaker Prasetyo Edi Marsudi said that he, along with several other councilors, formed a communications team in order to find a solution to the problems among the factions and to form commissions. The communications team is headed by Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) councilor Syahrial.

'€œI was appointed by Pak Prasetyo to communicate with councilors from the KMP [Red-and-White Coalition] factions. I have had intense communications with them this week,'€ Syahrial recently told The Jakarta Post over the phone.

Syahrial went on to say that he was in charge of lobbying each faction in order to accommodate all parties'€™ interests. He added that the discussions have so far been successful and that the factions were '€œno longer quarrelling'€.

Discussions on commission chairpersons and the nomination of members have been in deadlock because some parties insist on endorsing only one of their own members as chairperson. The parties, meanwhile, have blamed each other for the deadlock.

'€œThere is nothing to worry about anymore. Hopefully we can finish the discussions soon and announce the commission heads, deputies and members next week,'€ Syahrial said.

Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama, Regional Secretary Saefullah and Jakarta Financial Management Board head Heru Budi Hartono have all taken turns in criticizing the City Council. Normally, budget deliberations take at least one month before the draft bylaw is finally endorsed during a plenary session.

The city council will be forced to use unused funds from the 2014 budget if the 2015 budget draft is not completed in time.

Separately, Muhammad Taufik echoed Syahrial, adding that the councilors have put aside their differences in order to reach an agreement. He said the councilors were getting along and were starting to reach agreements.

'€œWe have had several meetings this week. I feel there are no more strains between the factions as we have put aside our egos,'€ Taufik told the Post recently.

'€” JP/Dewanti A. Wardhani