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espite a presidential instruction (Inpres) issued earlier this year to accelerate goods and services procurement, the Jakarta administration has thus far progressed at a snail'€™s pace.

President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo issued earlier this year Inpres No. 1/2015 to speed up procurement and development in the country. The Inpres aimed for all projects to complete tender by March and begin construction soon after.

Jakarta Goods and Services Procurement Agency (BPPBJ) head Irvan Amtha revealed that thus far this year, the agency had only completed four tenders of the targeted 6,000 services and goods procurement packages.

The four completed tenders, he said, included services for the Asian Golf Tournament, as well as printing for elementary school exams.

'€œWe have targeted a total of up to 6,000 procurement packages this year. As of Friday, we have only completed four tenders,'€ Irvan said at City Hall on Friday.

Further, he said, there were currently seven tenders in progress, including two Jakarta Emergency Dredging Initiative (JEDI) projects in West Jakarta'€™s Sekretaris River and North Jakarta'€™s Sunter, and procurement of food for animals at South Jakarta'€™s Ragunan Zoo.

Irvan said that working units, such as agencies and boards, were responsible for drafting procurement proposals.

'€œThe working units must draft the procurement proposals and submit them with the BPPBJ. As of Friday, 2,934 procurement package documents had been proposed out of the total 6,000,'€ he said.

Irvan went on to say that many working units were not optimistic that the programs they proposed would be approved due to cutbacks in the city budget, and thus decided to delay submission with the BPPBJ. However, he said that the working units should still submit their proposals to speed up tenders.

The Home Ministry reduced earlier this year the city'€™s 2015 budget from the planned Rp 72.9 trillion (US$5.57 billion) to Rp 69.2 trillion, which resulted in the city scrapping funds for several projects.

'€œHowever, according to Inpres No. 1/2015 on goods and service procurement acceleration, tender proposals may be submitted before the funds are disbursed to speed up development. If the proposal is rejected, then we can just cancel the bid,'€ Irvan said.

Irvan urged all working units to submit bidding proposals as the budget had been approved and may be disbursed.

'€œIt could take months before a winner is chosen. Therefore, we urge all working units to speed up preparations and submit documents,'€ he said.

Separately, Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama said that several programs and development projects might be delayed due to the late budget approval, such as the construction of rusunawa (low-cost rental apartments).

However, he said, the city would evaluate agencies that deliberately delayed the submission of bidding documents. '€œIf they submit the documents late for no rational reason, then they may be subject to demotion,'€ Ahok said.

He went on to say that the city would scrap funding from programs in which bidding had been deliberately delayed, and would instead use the money to buy buses for city-owned bus operator PT Transportasi Jakarta (Transjakarta).

'€œIt'€™s fine if some programs are delayed. We'€™ll buy buses instead,'€ Ahok said.