Indra Budiari, Jakarta – Anti-corruption activists have said the recent budget spat between Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama and the City Council should provide both with a lesson on the need to increase public participation in budget deliberation.
Roy Salam of the Indonesia Budget Center said recently that the Constitution demanded both the administration and the Council invite the public not to budget deliberation but instead budget meetings, including those held by Council's budgetary committee (Banggar), were held behind closed doors.
"That's why the last draft was lambasted for containing so many irregularities," Roy said in a press conference at the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) office in Kalibata, South Jakarta.
In February, relations between Ahok and city councilors turned sour after he brought to light irregularities in the councilors' version of the draft 2015 city budget.
The city councilors, who argued that their version was made in consultation with Ahok's subordinates, exercised their right of inquiry into Ahok himself, saying the version Ahok sent to the Home Ministry was not authentic. Ahok responded by filing a report with the Corruption Eradication Commission, containing evidence of budget irregularities from 2012 to 2014.
Roy said everyone must learn from the recent budget conflict, adding that councilors must invite their constituents to supervise budget meetings, as every single item allocated in the draft budget represented the public's interest and the objective of the city budget was to bring prosperity to the people.
"Any meeting discussing the budget must be open to the public so people can see whether their interests are being represented by councilors or not," Roy said.
Apung Widadi from the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA) said the city administration must also be criticized as they had yet to propose a "pro people" budget as a result of the "unnecessarily high" personnel expenditure on the city's public servants.
Fitra found that the newly proposed draft 2015 budget, through gubernatorial regulation, had allocated Rp 19 trillion (US$1.47 billion) for indirect personnel expenditure spending and Rp 2.3 trillion on direct personnel expenditure spending. "In total, the personnel expenditure allocation amounts to more than Rp 20 trillion, almost equal to the Rp 22 trillion of its capital spending. I think that is too much," Apung said.
He added that he hoped the Home Ministry would cut spending in the city budget.
Meanwhile, Donal Fariz from ICW said one of the systems that should be maintained in a bid to provide a transparent budget process was e-budgeting.
Ahok implemented an e-budget system this year in a bid to reduce dubious budget allocations. The system only allows selected officials to have usernames and passwords and any changes that are made can be traced back.
According to Donal, the city administration must consider establishing a particular institution for the e-budget process, which would have a firm legal basis, to prevent the next administration from returning to the old budgeting system.
"The best thing to do now is to institutionalize the e-budget process, otherwise I am afraid the next governor will discard the system that has been built to minimize any misappropriations," he said.