Ronna Nirmala – Antigraft activists have urged the Jakarta administration to continue overhauling the city's 2013 budget to prioritize pro-poor programs, in the face of calls by a government minister not to make any drastic changes.
Danang Widoyoko, the chairman of Indonesia Corruption Watch, said on Sunday that the administration of Governor Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, should not be afraid of tackling the inefficiencies in the budget, which was drawn up by his predecessor, Fauzi Bowo.
"Of course what he's trying to achieve will not be easy, and along the way there's always the prospect of political opposition [from the City Council]," he said at a discussion in Jakarta.
He added this was compounded by the fact that the two parties that backed Joko in last month's gubernatorial election held only 17 of the council's 94 seats, while those that supported Fauzi controlled 69 seats.
However, Danang said it was important for Joko to continue allocating funding for programs that he considered important for residents' welfare, arguing that the funding priorities set up by Fauzi tended to neglect the people.
Yayat Supriyatna, an urban planning expert from Trisakti University, agreed that the 2013 budget as it currently stood "is not typical Jokowi."
"It doesn't conform to his character, and if it stays as it is it will compromise the vision and mission of his platform," he said at the discussion. "The budget is so utterly lacking in quality that it verges on being wasteful."
Setyo Budiantoro, an ICW researcher, argued that much of the 2013 budget, valued at Rp 44 trillion ($4.58 billion), was allocated for the bureaucracy.
"There's a lot that's being proposed for renovating government buildings, buying uniforms and cars for civil servants, and so on," he said. "Whatever these programs are meant to achieve, they definitely can't be considered priority programs."
He said the spending plans included Rp 18 billion for uniforms, Rp 76 billion for cars and Rp 693 billion for building renovations. ICW also highlighted Rp 16 billion for the electronic ID card (e-KTP) program, which Setyo pointed out was supposed to be 90 percent complete.
"Besides, the Home Affairs Ministry is also funding this program, so why is the city allocating so much? This needs to be looked into," he said.
The activists' calls for a complete overhaul of the budget comes in contrast to a warning by Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi, who said on Friday that budget allocations to each department in the city administration needed to be respected as much as possible.
"If there's too much deviation [and reallocation], that's not good. In fact, reallocating funding could violate certain bylaws," he said.
Speaking at City Hall on Sunday, Joko acknowledged that he had ambitious plans for the city budget, but would need the political support to be able to push them through.
"The money is enough, perhaps even more than enough, for the programs that I'm planning," he said. "But in order for them to be approved I would have to get the backing of the City Council."