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s the Transportation Ministry began signing contracts President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo told its officials to disburse at least 90 percent of its allocated budget this year following slow spending last year.

The ministry signed contracts worth Rp 2.07 trillion (US$148.6 million) for 12 strategic projects across the country on Monday, out of the total of 273 projects amounting to Rp 14.24 trillion to be signed in January.

The President welcomed the move to break the old pattern of speeding up disbursement in the last months of the year, hence he expected a higher disbursement figure by the ministry, having only spent 76.5 percent of its budget throughout 2015, well below its 80 percent budget-disbursement target.

'€œ[It was better than] two years ago [2014] at 75 percent, but I hope it can be boosted to above 90 percent as we have now started [signing contracts] in January,'€ Jokowi said in his speech to ministry officials.

He also reminded them to monitor every infrastructure project related to transportation to prevent misuse of funds amid recurrent corruption cases in various road projects across the country.

Jokowi warned the officials not to simply watch the progress from behind their desks given that anomalies and irregularities, '€œoften occur in the field'€.

The ministry was also urged to integrate the work on various transportation infrastructure projects across the country with the work of other ministries, including the Tourism Ministry, which is currently focused on developing 10 selected emerging tourism destinations.

Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan acknowledged that the ministry'€™s budget disbursement for last year, amounting to Rp 65.12 trillion in total, was not enough although he claimed that the ministry had saved up to Rp 3.15 trillion because of reduced construction costs following the slump in oil prices.

He aimed for better spending this year, with a total of Rp 10 trillion worth of contracts ready to be signed by Jan. 15, as the ministry had begun non-binding bidding since November last year. '€œOur target is that by Mar. 31, we will have signed 70 percent of the total contracts or put out tenders for 85 percent of them,'€ he said, adding that the total spending amounting to Rp 41.7 trillion.

The contracts signed on Monday included projects such as the runway, taxiway and apron work at Syukuran Aminuddin Amir Airport, Central Sulawesi, as well as the development of a railway in Dumai, North Sumatra, and subsidies for sea freight and pioneering ships operated by state shipping firm PT Pelayaran Nasional Indonesia (Pelni).

The ministry also signed a contract with state railway firm PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) allocating Rp 1.65 trillion for its infrastructure maintenance operation (IMO) for railways in Sumatra and Java.

Jonan also stated that the ministry would focus on boosting transportation safety this year by allocating Rp 12.5 trillion from the Rp 48.46 trillion overall allocation for the ministry in the 2016 state budget.

'€œWe are very serious about this, as the budget allocation has never been that big before,'€ Jonan said.