T

hree weeks after the Home Ministry approved the 2015 Jakarta budget, the city administration has yet to disburse funds for working units due to administrative logjam.

'€œAll working units submitted budget-implementation documents late last week. Right now, we are in the process of completing the administrative process for the disbursement,'€ Jakarta Financial and Asset Management Board (BPKAD) head Heru Budi Hartono said at City Hall on Monday.

He went on to say that the funds would be disbursed late in May or early in June, so that all city projects, including infrastructure projects, would begin in June. Heru said in 2013 funds were disbursed in February, while in 2014, they were disbursed in April.

'€œThis year'€™s disbursement is quite fast considering the circumstances,'€ Heru said.

By '€œcircumstances'€, Heru was referring to the drawn-out dispute between councilors and Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama over the city budget. The conflict ended in late March, with the Jakarta administration '€” for the first time in history '€” failing to secure approval from City Council for a draft budget.

Heru also said that construction on infrastructure projects may only begin after tendering had been finalized. Just two infrastructure projects have so far been put to tender by the Jakarta Goods and Services Procurement Agency (BPPBJ), and both are part of the Jakarta Emergency Dredging Initiative (JEDI); one project is located at West Jakarta'€™s Sekretaris River and the second at North Jakarta'€™s Sunter River. Tenders for both projects are nearing completion.

'€œThere are about 500 procurements planned for major and minor construction projects this year. Currently, there are only two infrastructure projects in the bidding process, while tenders for some 50 other projects are still being prepared,'€ he said.

In total, 2,934 procurement projects will be prepared for bidding this year. Heru urged all working units to submit bidding documents quickly in order to minimize the amount of unused funds (silpa) from the 2015 budget year.

'€œDelayed bidding processes can affect the amount of silpa. Therefore, working units should quickly submit bidding documents to minimize silpa,'€ Heru said.

Separately, Ahok said he anticipated that a large percentage of the budget would sit unused this year due to the delayed tenders.

'€œI already predicted that the procurement and bidding process would be disorganized this year. If working units are unable to quickly submit bidding documents [with the BPPBJ], then we will scrap funding for their procurement projects,'€ Ahok said.

He added that he would seek to reallocate the funds as capital injection to city-owned firms such as bus operator PT Transportasi Jakarta (Transjakarta), slaughterhouse PD Dharma Jaya and food security company PT Food Station Tjipinang in the revised budget.

'€œFor example, we can allocate more funds for PT Transjakarta to procure more buses,'€ Ahok said.

In addition, he gave assurances that crucial infrastructure projects such as a sea dike for flood mitigation; school renovations; and hospital and low-cost apartment (rusunawa) construction would not be hampered. Although he anticipated low spending levels, Ahok said he was not worried.

'€œHigh spending does not guarantee productivity. It'€™s better if we can complete crucial infrastructure projects without spending too much, because then we will save money,'€ Ahok said.