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Jakarta’s working visit budget skyrockets
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Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan (third right) submits his speech text to City Council Speaker Prasetio Edi Marsudi (second left) after a plenary meeting on Nov. 15. (kompas.com/Nursita Sari )
T
he Jakarta administration has proposed a working visit budget for next year at Rp 107.7 billion (US$7.9 million) – much higher than a similar allocation last year, which was Rp 28.7 billion.
The amount is set for various things, like accommodation costs and air travel.
Based on the administration’s official budget website, apbd.jakarta.go.id, the working visit budget covers domestic trips’ representation costs for city councillors and echelon level II officials.
The data showed that the 2018 working visit budget is allocated for 7,752 people. Each person gets representation costs at Rp 150,000, thus it requires Rp 1.1 billion of funds in total.
In addition, the allocation also includes daily travel expenses for 7,752 echelon level II officials and city councillors, at Rp 4 million per person. In total, the daily travel expense allocation is proposed at Rp 31 billion.
However, the data did not explain how many times the officials or councillors would partake in working visits. The Jakarta council itself currently has only 106 members.
Responding to the issue, City Council commission A secretary, Syarif, explained that each commission had between 20 and 23 members and in a month could carry out two work visits.
During a visit, the councillors usually bring along four staffers to take care of administration. Hence, within the working visit period, which is usually effective for 10 months, a commission will deploy 540 people for the activity.
"That is only one commission. We have five commissions and four bodies here,” said Syarif as quoted by kompas.com. “But the number is not yet final. If the 7,752 figure is too high, we will evaluate it.” (agn)
