Hasyim Widhiarto, Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has urged governors, mayors and regents to thoroughly review regional spending on administrative affairs so that they can allocate more from regional budgets to development expenditure.
Delivering an opening speech to kick off the government's coordination meeting with 34 governors and provincial law-enforcement authorities, Jokowi said he had learned that many regions, particularly regencies and mayoralties, had allocated at least 80 percent of their regional budgets for administrative purposes, in contrast to the 20 percent allocated for financing development programs.
"This kind of allocation is dangerous and it must be changed immediately," Jokowi, who was inaugurated as the country's seventh president on Oct. 20, said on Tuesday.
"When I took office as Surakarta mayor, the city's ratio [between administrative spending and development expenditure] was 74:26. But, in one year, we managed to adjust the ratio to 49:51. We had to work very thoroughly [to review the budget], just like accountants." (nfo)