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Jakarta Post

Jakarta administration delays budget deliberation

City Secretary Saefullah

The Jakarta Post
Tue, November 24, 2015

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Jakarta administration delays budget deliberation City Secretary Saefullah. (Kompas.com/Kurnia Sari Aziza) (Kompas.com/Kurnia Sari Aziza)

City Secretary Saefullah. (Kompas.com/Kurnia Sari Aziza)

The Jakarta city administration has delayed the deliberation of the 2016 city budget bill with the City Council, because a number of working units under the city administration have to revise their allocations, as stated in a document known as the General Policy for City Budget Priorities and the Tentative Budget Platform (KUA-PPAS).

The KUA-PPAS was scheduled to be approved by the city administration and the City Council into an official 2016 city budget bill on Monday, so that the budget deliberation could begin.

'€œWe are checking the budget allocations. We want the budgets to be spent only to finance activities that are in the interest of the people,'€ said City Secretary Saefullah, who also heads the City Administration Budgetary Team (TAPD), as reported by beritajakarta.com.

Last week, Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama scrutinized the KUA-PPAS after it had been agreed upon by representatives of both the city administration and the City Council in mid-October. The document detailed spending items totaling Rp 62.5 trillion (US$4.58 billion), down from this year's budget of Rp 69.28 trillion.

Ahok looked into the details of budget allocations in each working unit and scrapped allocations that he considered wasteful. For example, he significantly cut the proposed funds for the City Culture and Tourism Agency, scrapping some 15 festivals usually organized to promote the city'€™s tourism industry.

Saefullah said the budget deliberation with the City Council was suspended to give city agencies more time to revise their respective budget allocations. He blamed the heads of each working unit for failing to refer to the city'€™s medium and long-term development plan in allocating proposed 2016 budget funds.

'€œThe Echelon II officials fail to understand the city'€™s medium and long-term development planning. The failure to interpret the objectives, outputs and inputs of the plan would result in a waste of city money as is currently happening,'€ he added.

Meanwhile, the Home Ministry'€™s director general for regional finance, Reydonnyar Moenek, urged both the city administration and the City Council to immediately complete the budget bill, as otherwise both the governor and all members of the City Council would not receive their salaries for six months next year.

Last year, a lengthy dispute between the city administration and the City Council caused the approval of this year'€™s city budget by the Home Ministry to fall months behind schedule. When the City Council rejected the draft budget, the city administration was forced to use the previous budget as the reference for 2015, in accordance with regulations (bbn).(+)

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