Rizky Amelia – Six ministries are failing to effectively implement many of their proposed programs, using less than 20 percent of their earmarked budgets in the first six months of the year, according to Indonesia's most prominent budget watchdog.

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) said on Sunday that the Ministry of Public Housing had spent just 1.9 percent of its Rp 5.9 trillion ($611 million) budget from January through June this year, indicating a failure to realize many of its proposed projects.

According to the group, the Sports and Youth Affairs Ministry only spent 4.2 percent of its Rp 1.7 trillion appropriation during the same period, while the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry used up just 10.8 percent of its Rp 16 trillion budget.

For the first six months of the year, Fitra said the Ministry for the Acceleration of Development in Underdeveloped Regions only spent Rp 125.8 billion of its Rp 1.15 trillion budget, while the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy spent 17 percent of its Rp 2.6 trillion budget.

The Coordinating Ministry for People's Welfare fared better, absorbing 19 percent of its Rp 222 billion budget in the first six months of 2012.

The watchdog's research director, Maulana, said the figures indicated that the ministries in question were procrastinating and delaying programs' implementation, paving the way for overspending and senseless expenditures.

Maulana said the delayed spending is in defiance of a decree from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. "The president's commitment is good. But it seems the president's commitment is not well executed by his cabinet members," he said.

Yudhoyono had also instructed his ministers to submit progress reports every quarter to determine whether their programs were being carried out on schedule, but Maulana said "the mechanism is not performing effectively."

The Fitra researcher criticized the ministries in light of the fact that they had sought greater funding than their 2011 appropriations during budget negotiations. "The [budget] increase is not followed by better performance," Maulana said.