Jakarta – A number of regional governments have cut their HIV/AIDS budget allocation, despite a national commitment to raise more funds to fight the virus.

Secretary of the National AIDS Commission (KPA) Nafsiah Mboi said Wednesday 23 provincial governments had reduced their HIV budget by a total of Rp 5.72 billion – to be put toward regional election expenditure last year.

The budget cut may be insignificant, but Nafsiah said she feared a bigger part of HIV budgets would go to other institutions ahead of the 2009 elections.

"If regional elections can take money from HIV budgets, a bigger event like a national election could also see this happen," Nafsiah told a discussion at the State Minister of National Development Planning Office.

I Nyoman Kandun, general director of Epidemic Control and Environmental Sanitation at the Health Ministry said the ministerial office had slashed its budget for HIV/AIDS control by 20 percent last year.

"The reduction has caused some programs to run below our expectations," he said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for an increase in the state's budget for HIV/AIDS during a cabinet meeting in July last year.

The president's request, however, has fallen on deaf ears in some regions.

In Papua, for example, the provincial government allocated Rp 10 billion for its regional AIDS commission in 2007, but only 1 percent of the budget was realized.

The AIDS Commission said it needs more than Rp 1.5 trillion this year to deal with the virus, but the government has promised to provide Rp 1 trillion only. Most of the budget would be spent on prevention programs.

Nafsiah said the government did not consider HIV/AIDS a priority because the number of infected people remained small compared to patients of other diseases.

In December 2007 the Ministry of Health recorded 6,066 people with HIV and 11,141 with AIDS. Jakarta still tops the list due to the increasing number of infections among injection drug users (IDU).

But the government said it was most worried about Papua, where HIV is being contracted at a fast rate by low risk groups, particularly housewives. The commission estimated the number of people with HIV/AIDS would reach 400,000 in 2010 and one million in 2015 across the country.

To help overcome budget constraints, the health minister proposed the involvement of the private sector under corporate social responsibility programs. She said foreign investment companies like Freeport, Newmont and others should join the fight against HIV in the country. (dia)