Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – The City Council plans to approve the 2004 city budget of Rp 12.16 trillion (US$1.43 billion) on Tuesday, but several councillors and analysts say there is no guarantee that the budget will be free from irregularities. Mukhayar, a member of the council's commission D for development affairs, said on Monday that the commission found some funding allocations were higher than necessary.
He said, for example, the City Sanitation Agency proposed an allocation of Rp 42 billion for fees to dispose of garbage at a waste treatment facility, operated by a private company in Bojong, Bogor regency.
"After recalculating the allocation, we know that we need only Rp 28.9 billion for garbage fees," said a councillor from the Justice Party (PK).
Mukhayar said the calculation was based on an assumption that the fee was Rp 53,800 per ton, while the waste treatment facility, with a daily capacity of 1,500 tons, operated everyday of the year.
He said Commission D also found that duplicate allocations had been made for an activity at the Bantar Gebang dump in Bekasi municipality. The sanitation agency and the City Secretariat were allocated funds for the same activity.
According to Mukhayar, the majority of councillors were not able to check the proposed draft budget thoroughly; time was limited and councillors discussed relevant sections only.
"We can't track all possible duplications in the budget," he said.
Councillor Ali Imran Husein of the United Development Party (PPP) also complained that, as the draft was hundreds-of-pages long, it was impossible to check everything in less than a month.
Chairman of the Budget Critic Forum (Fitra), Laode Ida, called on the City Council to delay approving the budget, so that councillors would have more time to work on it, and the public greater access to the final draft.
He said many allocations of funds for planned programs or activities were unrealistic.
He revealed that the funds allocated for the governor's administrative costs next year reached Rp 2.87 billion, and for the deputy governor, Rp 2.73 billion. While the health budgets for the two top-officials were Rp 60 million each.
"There is no detailed explanation of how these allocations will be used. Therefore, there is potential for corruption," he said.
Laode also criticized both councillors and officials for limiting public access to the budget, as discussions were mostly held behind closed doors. Such a mechanism had sparked speculation of possible corruption and collusion among them.
Fitra has invited the public to demonstrate against the budget at the City Council building on Tuesday.