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Jakarta worst in budget spending, home ministry says
Reydonnyzar Moenek
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Reydonnyzar Moenek.(Kompas.com/Jessi Carina) (Kompas.com/Jessi Carina)
Reydonnyzar Moenek.(Kompas.com/Jessi Carina)
The home ministry has said that Jakarta has performed exceedingly poorly in terms of budget spending compared to the rest of the country. Jakarta had spent less than 20 percent of its total budget as of October, far behind the national average of 46.59 percent.
According to Regional Financial Monitoring Directorate General at the Home Ministry Reydonnyzar Moenek, Jakarta, with just 19.39 percent of spending, sat at the lowest position in the nation, followed by Papua with 21.74 percent, North Kalimantan with 23.7 percent, West Papua with 28.86 percent, and Riau with 29.8 percent.
Reydonnyzar, however, said that the trend in budget spending had gradually increased following instructions from President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo that law enforcers refrain from too quickly prosecuting regional leaders in connection with regional spending.
'We predict that spending will continuously increase in October, following the President's instruction to law enforcers,' said Reydonnyzar as reported by kompas.com on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Gorontalo, with 63.1 percent spending, sits on the top of the list of the best performing regions in terms of spending, followed by North Maluku with 63 percent, Central Kalimantan with 62.9 percent, East Nusa Tenggara with 57.6 percent and Southeast Sulawesi with 56.9 percent.
Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo expressed the hope that the national average of regional spending could reach 80 percent in October. This hope was expressed when he met with 13 governors from across the country on Friday.
Meanwhile, Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama has said that one of the main reasons for the city's low spending was the sluggish work of the home ministry in processing the draft revised budget submitted by his administration in August.
According to Ahok, he wanted to revise the 2015 City Budget because there were many alleged mark-ups of the allocated funds in many city agencies. He said that he was not bothered by the meager spending because he wanted to avoid corruption.
The Jakarta City Council failed to approve the draft city budget earlier this year because both the Council and the city administration failed to agree on the draft budget. Based on the existing regulation, the city has to use the 2014 City Budget to finance the city's development activities.
President Jokowi has repeatedly called on regional leaders to boost spending as part of efforts to boost the national economy. The President stressed that regional leaders did need not worry about corruption charges as long as they spent money based on existing procedures. (bbn)(++++)
