Nurfika Osman, Jakarta – A budget watchdog has released a report claiming to show how the central government has hogged much of the state budget to the detriment of development in the regions.

Yuna Farhan, secretary general of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), said on Monday that the uneven distribution of the budget "prevented public services from being provided in the regions at an optimal level."

"The first issue is that the amount of the budget allocated to the regions is limited and does not take into account the people's welfare," he said at Fitra's year-end evaluation of government spending, under the theme "The Year of Hijacking the Regional Budget."

"Even though the government keeps saying the regions' share of the national budget is gradually increasing, the fact is that the allocated proportion has never been more than 30 percent."

He said that even then, much of the money was prone to embezzlement by government officials. "The budget for social aid is particularly susceptible to embezzlement," Yuna said.

He added Fitra had found that as much as Rp 765.3 billion ($85 million) may have been embezzled from the slice of the 2009 budget allocated to 19 provinces, including East Nusa Tenggara, one of the country's poorest.

"The budget was divided and allocated without input from any outside organizations being taken into account," Yuna said. "This indicates that funding requirements for various projects may have been falsified."

He also said part of the money allocated to the provinces was used to pay for constituency visits by top officials from the government and members of the regional representatives councils. "We also found that Rp 50.8 billion was used for trips made by government officials," he said.

The group highlighted an additional Rp 58.4 billion that had been earmarked as a spending allowance for district heads and officials, and as much as Rp 24.6 billion given to political parties.

Reydonnyzar Moenek, a spokesman for the Home Affairs Ministry, did not deny Fitra's claims. "It's true that 54 percent of the budget allocated to regions is earmarked for personnel expenses," he said.

He also confirmed that some of the money benefited parties, saying "the fund includes an allocation for political activities."

"We can't deny that political activities consume a big portion of the regional budget, because the system allows it," he added, referring to a regulation that allows district heads to allocate social aid grants to parties for political activities.

"We're going to use the findings from this study to ensure the state budget is used in a more efficient and effective way," he said.