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City’s self-management fund sparks controversy
Governor Anies Baswedan wants residents to have access to city funds for the sake of “participatory development”
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span>Governor Anies Baswedan wants residents to have access to city funds for the sake of “participatory development”. However, concerns are widespread over the community’s competence and transparency in independently managing the fund sourced from the city budget.
He stated earlier this month that his administration was drafting a gubernatorial regulation that would detail the mechanism allowing the regional budget to be disbursed directly to residents in self-management fund schemes. He argued it was based on a 2018 presidential regulation on government procurement of goods and services.
“The old policy did not leave room for public participation in the development process,” he said over the weekend.
He explained that in the regulation there were four types of regional budget management, and the third and fourth types could be directly disbursed to residents to make them co-creators of their own areas instead of relying on the regional administration or private sector.
But his plan has sparked controversy as members of the public and councilors raised their eyebrows over possibilities the fund would be given to mass organizations. Anies soon refuted the concerns when asked if the fund would be disbursed to mass organizations such as the notorious Islam Defenders Front (FPI) or the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR).
“Those are mass organizations. [The targets of the program] are community organizations such as neighborhood units, community units, youth organization Karang Taruna and the Family Welfare Movement [PKK],” he said.
Despite being open to the public, he emphasized that the end result of such projects carried out by the organizations and groups should meet standards set by the government.
“The price, the minimum service standard, all is set by the administration,” he said.
Bestari Barus, a member of the City Council’s Commission D that oversees development programs, expressed concern over the locals’ competence if allowed to carry out particular public projects.
“People who manage the fund must have technical abilities [in relevant projects],” the NasDem party politician said, citing the example of Karang Taruna members who might not be sufficiently skilled in carrying out public projects like Jakarta Public Works Agency workers were.
Council Speaker Prasetio Edi Marsudi echoed a similar sentiment fearing that the fund could miss the target. He suggested that locals could be engaged in the planning and monitoring but leave the fund management to the related agency.
Responding to this opinion, Jakarta Unity and Political Unity Office (Kesbangpol) acting head Taufan Bakri said the city budget would not be given arbitrarily to those deemed incompetent in the matter, as mandated by a 2018 National Public Procurement Agency regulation.
The agency’s regulation stipulates that community organizations are only eligible for the fund if they are a legal entity with relevant technical experience within the last three years, among other requirements.
Community groups eligible for the fund are those that are formally recognized by a local authority and have technical competence to provide particular services or goods.
Among 1,000 registered community organizations and groups, only around a third of those still active would be eligible for receiving the fund, Taufan said.
“Each community organization or group has its own specialization. But what’s more important is that we provide administrative and technical assistance for them [to carry out the project],” he said.
Currently, any procurement of goods or services, ranging from the planning to execution and supervision, was only done by the administration, while local people played a role as a participant only, he explained. Hence, the new policy would allow them to be heavily involved in the process.
However, Taufan was confident that the local people’s competence could not be ignored, citing an example of locals repairing their own road within their residential area.
“We can no longer provide programs that they [local people] don’t understand. We want to put our trust in them,” he concluded.
Above all, he stressed that the administration would strictly monitor the whole implementation of self-management funds.
Local Karang Taruna head Wiyatno from community unit (RW) 08, Palmerah subdistrict in West Jakarta, said he
welcomed the idea, as long as there were clear mechanisms for the implementation, including the extent of the guidance and supervision provided by the administration.
He claimed that Karang Taruna already had the knowledge of preparing a project proposal and report, as they periodically held events, such as Independence Day celebrations.
“Of course we won’t propose something that we could not handle or is not in our main field, which is related to youth leadership and empowerment,” he said.
