Jakarta – The Jakarta administration has scrapped its budget for the procurement of 118 plots of land for the Ciliwung River normalization project as the city faces a 2019 budget deficit.
"[The plan to purchase 118 plots of land] along the Ciliwung River has been cancelled," Jakarta Water Resources Agency head Juaini Yusuf said at the City Council building on Monday, kompas.com reported.
Juaini said the agency had previously prepared a budget of Rp 160 billion (US$11.37 million) to procure the 118 plots of land. Before the budget was scrapped, the agency was waiting for a gubernatorial decree on the locations of each plot of land.
The Jakarta Water Resources Agency earmarked Rp 850 billion for river and lake normalization or engineering projects, building concrete walls along rivers and lakes. About Rp 350 billion had been used, but the remaining Rp 500 billion that included Rp 160 billion to procure the 118 plots of land will not be used because of the budget deficit.
The scrapped plan means that the normalization project, led out by the Public Works and Housing Ministry's Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Control Office to prevent flooding, has to come to a halt.
"If the [land purchase] has not been paid, then how could [the flood control office] do the work? It will be difficult," Juani said.
Jakarta City secretary Saefullah said the 2019 city budget was on the brink of deficit because the administration had yet to receive 6.39 trillion in profit-sharing funds from the central government.
The funds were meant to come from regional taxes collected by the city administration and sent to the central government. "We have yet to receive the Rp 6.3 trillion in profit-sharing funds," Saefullah said on Oct. 24. (ami)