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espite having agreed to speed up the 2016 budgeting process last week, the city administration and city council have delayed the approval of the preliminary budget platform (KUAPPAS), which was set to be approved on Monday.

Seemingly back to square one, the city administration and the city councilors have run into disagreement in the budgeting process.

Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama said that many changes were still needed in the draft budget as many working units still included '€œquestionable'€ allocations.

'€œThere are still several improvements needed in the budget. We'€™ll only be late several days from our initial plan. It won'€™t be a problem,'€ Ahok told reporters at City Hall on Monday.

Previously, Ahok had said that the city administration and the councilors would sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the preliminary budget draft on Monday. He confirmed that the signing of the MoU was delayed, but assured that it would be carried out this month to have the 2016 budget approved before the year end.

Earlier this year, the city administration and the City Council agreed to set the 2016 draft budget at Rp 62.55 trillion (US$4.5 billion).

Ahok said that after meetings with agencies over the weekend, he had further scrapped a number of allocations. For example, Ahok has scrapped all assigned spending in the Thousand Islands Regency housing and government building subagency.

'€œThe subagency allocated Rp 3.7 billion to develop an educational park similar to our RPTRA [child-friendly integrated public space]. Meanwhile, our standard funding to develop such parks is only Rp 750 million,'€ Ahok said.

He said that all of the subagency'€™s activities next year will be under the North Jakarta subagency'€™s purview.

'€œThere are also allocations for stationary in each working unit for around Rp 200 million, totaling up to Rp 487 billion in the city budget. The Housing and Government Buildings Agency alone allocated Rp 250 million for stationery and an additional Rp 300 million for printer ink,'€ Ahok said.

Separately, city council deputy speaker Mohamad Taufik of the Gerindra Party criticized Ahok for making the changes and said that the city administration must send a letter to the city council before making changes to the draft.

'€œThe city administration must send a letter to the city council'€™s budgetary committee before making changes. The committee will then hold a joint meeting with the agencies. Only after an approval from the meeting can the city administration make changes to the KUAPPAS,'€ Taufik said on Monday.

Taufik said that the councilors refused to discuss the Tourism and Culture Agency'€™s budget draft because the agency'€™s previous meeting with Ahok resulted in significant changes to the draft, including the scrapping of funds for around a dozen festivals.

'€œWe'€™re confused because the draft we received was different from the initial draft submitted by the agency. Therefore, we refuse to discuss the draft before we receive an explanation,'€ Taufik said.

Separately, city secretary Saefullah said that the city administration would comply and send letters to the city council regarding the changes.

'€œIt is not a problem if we make changes to the draft, although we have already submitted an initial draft to the councilors. However, we will submit a letter to inform them of the changes,'€ Saefullah said.

Early this year, the city administration and the City Council became embroiled in a bitter dispute over the 2015 draft budget. As a result, the Jakarta administration for the first time issued a budget without approval from the City Council.

Both have attempted to avoid another budget fiasco by beginning discussions regarding the 2016 budget early in the year.
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