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Commission heads announced two months after inauguration
The City Council has finally announced the chairpersons of five commissions and supporting bodies, nearly two months after their inauguration
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The City Council has finally announced the chairpersons of five commissions and supporting bodies, nearly two months after their inauguration.
They are now challenged with the task of completing deliberations on the 2020 city budget by Nov. 30, a deadline set by the Home Ministry.
Should they fail to meet the deadline, the City Council and city administration would be denied their financial rights for six months as an administrative sanction, as stipulated in a 2014 gubernatorial regulation.
The City Council's legislation and public relations head, Purwana Ansyori, announced the new leaders of five commissions and supporting bodies — including the legislative body, budgetary committee, consultative body and ethics council — in a plenary meeting held in Central Jakarta on Monday.
Five political parties with the most seats at the council, namely the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Gerindra Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN), chair one commission each.
However, the PDI-P and the Democratic Party secured a greater number of seats to chair the legislative body and ethics council, respectively.
The remaining four factions, namely the Golkar Party, Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), NasDem, National Awakening Party (PKB) and United Development Party (PPP), will have its respective members serving as deputy or secretary in the commissions.
The selected chairpersons are in accordance with the seats secured by each faction in the council, according to Council Speaker Prasetyo Edi Marsudi.
With the newly appointed leaders, Prasetyo said the council would immediately conduct meetings to discuss the city administration's draft 2020 budget.
"Hopefully, the councillors will start the meetings in each commission," he said. “We will discuss the budget as best as we can."
The chairman of Commission E overseeing people’s welfare, Iman Satria from Gerindra, said he promised to start budget deliberations a day after the plenary meeting.
“Because we are racing against time, right? A month [to finish] at the latest,” he told The Jakarta Post.
Iman, who was reelected, said the commission would mostly focus on the education and health sectors. He cited the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) as an example as persistent problems within the agency have affected health services in the capital.
Commission D overseeing eight agencies related to people’s welfare plans to propose a total of Rp18.36 trillion (US$1.3 million) for next year's budget, the highest among other commissions, according to the city administration's work plan (RKPD) available on the Jakarta Development Planning Agency (Bappeda) website bappeda.jakarta.go.id.
The chairman of Commission B overseeing economy, PKS’ Abdul Aziz, said he would focus on the city administration's efforts to increase the gross regional domestic product in an attempt to create more jobs and increase residents’ income, as well as curb the city's revenue deficit.
“One thing to look out for in the draft budget is how to optimize infrastructure development to create jobs. Also, to ensure effective and efficient budget management,” he told the Post.
Nine agencies under the supervision of Commission B plan to propose a total of Rp 3.93 trillion for next year’s budget.
Aside from the mounting pressure to complete deliberations of the draft budget, observers have criticized former city councillors for a substandard term.
The 2014-2019 City Council passed 36 bylaws in the past five years, nearly half the bylaws passed by the 2009-2014 council.
Appointed to chair the legislative committee, Pantas Nainggolan from the PDI-P, said the council attempted to be more selective prior to determining bills to be endorsed in order to improve the quality of the council's legal products.
“We will be more selective in picking draft bylaws for deliberation, only ones necessary for the public. There shouldn't be a legal void in society,” he told the Post on Monday.
To boost investment in the city, Pantas added that the legislative committee would encourage the city administration to "harmonize" existing city bylaws to cut down on regulations deemed unnecessarily burdensome for businesses.
