Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – The National Disaster Management Coordinating Board (Bakornas) announced Thursday that search for survivors and wreckage from two major air and sea disasters has left it run out of money.
The board's secretary, Budi Atmadi Adiputro, said Bakornas spent between Rp 27 billion (US$2.84 million) and Rp 29 billion searching for both an Adam Air jetliner that went missing off Sulawesi with 102 people on New Years Day, and the KM Senopati Nusantara ferry, which sank in the Java sea on Dec. 29 last year.
"Almost all of our money is spent. We have a budget to deal with floods, so we borrowed part of it. We also took loans from here and there, like borrowing several thousand liters of avtur from (state oil company) Pertamina," Budi said after a meeting to deal with disasters across West Java in Bandung on Thursday.
Around 250 of the Senopati ferry's 628 passengers have been picked up alive from the sea while tens of bodies have been found. Some 300 passengers remain missing, while the ship's wreck has still not been found.
The search for the Adam Air jetliner's passengers goes on but not for the black boxes, which were detected by a US ship in Majene waters, West Sulawesi.
Budi said he did not know this month's budget plan for the searches, but the search would continue until there was an instruction from Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa or President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono himself to stop.
He said technical details of the searches, along with efforts to salvage the ship and the jetliner's wreck, were the responsibility of the ministry and the National Search and Rescue Board (Basarnas).
However, Bakornas is in charge of coordinating other factors, such as obtaining search ships, planes, avtur, troops and money.
He said that during the January searches, emphasis was placed on finding survivors. He said the focus of searches in the coming days will be on finding the Senopati ferry's wreck and the remains of the Adam Air jetliner's passengers.
When asked whether Bakornas would claim the search fund with Adam Air and Senopati management, Budi said that only areas such as compensation payouts would be the responsibility of the companies. "If it was all a burden on the companies, they might go out of business," Budi said.
Meanwhile, he said only 10 percent out of some 400 regencies and cities have allocated special funds to deal with natural disasters. The lack such funds, he said, meant most local administrations had to request help from the central government in dealing with disasters.
He said a Bakornas team had been sent around the country to convince local administrations to allocate funds to deal with disasters.
"Funds for disasters should no longer come from the central government but from regencies, cities and provincial administrations. An accomplishment for regents and mayors should no longer be the construction of a new road, but it should be good preparation for disasters," Budi said.