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Ministry's Rp 9.17t budget gets blocked
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Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati (AFP/Zach Gibson)
T
he Finance Ministry has blocked Rp 9.17 trillion (US$645.34 million) in funds allocated for the Public Works and Housing Ministry or about 8.2 percent of the total allocation in the state budget for the ministry, which was set at Rp 110.7 trillion.
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati explained that it was triggered by incomplete or improper documentation of budgets.
“Soon after the documentation is completed, we will unblock funds,” Sri Mulyani said as quoted by tempo.co.id, adding that a similar block used to be imposed on the Transportation Ministry.
She referred to the blockage of Rp 900 billion or 2.1 percent of the Transportation Ministry’s total budget this year of Rp 41.5 trillion.
Previously, Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono revealed the blockage when he met with lawmakers on Monday. He said of the Rp 9.17 billion blocked funds, Rp 9.1 billion was in rupiah, while the remainder was in the form of foreign grants.
Meanwhile, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said the amount of blocked funds had been declining year by year. Budi explained that in 2017, the blocked fund for his ministry was recorded at Rp 5.1 trillion and last year it was Rp 1.8 trillion.
“It is declining because of the application of e-filling and better budgetary processes,” he said at a March 18 hearing with House Commission V on transportation.
Budi said the Finance Ministry was in the process of ending the blockage and as of March, the ministry had made Rp 75 billion of the blocked funds available. (bbn)
