Former Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama was often praised for his transparency and commitment to fight corruption in his handling of the city’s budget, often to the dismay of the City Council (DPRD), which can be seen through the numerous attempts they made to sneak personal allowances into the budget whenever Ahok was away from his office.
The time has come for new Governor Anies Baswedan and Vice Governor Sandiaga Uno to show if they can exhibit the same commitment to transparency and anti-corruption as Ahok, as the 2018 RAPBD (Regional Budget Draft) is currently being discussed with the DPRD before it’s officially approved as the APBD (Regional Budget).
As it stands, things don’t look too promising.
On November 14, the Jakarta Provincial Government and the DPRD signed an agreement to set the budget ceiling for the 2018 RAPBD to IDR77.1 trillion. If passed as it is, this would be the biggest budget Jakarta has ever had. By comparison, last year’s budget was approved at IDR70.2 trillion.
Of course, IDR77.1 trillion by itself doesn’t tell the whole story — it might even be justifiable if the city’s income is expected to increase next year. However, many are already criticizing the 2018 RAPBD for budget allocations that are deemed inefficient.
Rian Ernest, a cadre of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), said his party have been closely reviewing the 2018 RAPBD. He said that one of the biggest allocation hikes was for the operations budget for DPRD members, which was requested at IDR346.5 billion, compared to IDR129.3 billion last year.
Some of the more questionable allocations, according to Rian, include IDR620 million for the renovation of a 8×4 meter koi pond at the DPRD office, IDR107.7 billion for DPRD members’ official trips, IDR 542.8 million for vehicle maintenance, and IDR571 million for website maintenance.
“It’s surely not too late for the government to review the allocations for non-priority items so they can reduce the budget deficit that they are facing,” Rian said, as quoted by Kompas today.
Even DPRD Jakarta Chairman Prasetio Edi Marsudi, on the surface at least, seems critical towards the 2018 RAPBD. He said the Jakarta Provincial Government also put forward some allocations that could be deemed unnecessary, such as IDR28.99 billion to hire and pay for the Governor’s Team to Speed Up Construction (TGUPP), compared to just IDR2.35 billion last year.
“The public should criticize Jakarta’s 2018 RAPBD. This is the people’s budget that is supposed to be used for the benefit of the people of Jakarta,” he said today, as quoted by BeritaSatu.
While certain aspects of the 2018 RAPBD seem to be more for the benefit of bureaucrats, some of the cuts certainly seem detrimental to regular citizens. The public was especially outraged that meat subsidies for the poor — a program introduced under Jokowi and Ahok’s administration — have been erased from the 2018 RAPBD.
Amid all the criticism surrounding it, Anies and Sandiaga have spent much of today trying to justify some of the allocations of the 2018 RAPBD. Speaking to reporters, Sandiaga assured the public that the meat subsidy program would continue under a different budget allocation, while the expensive koi pond renovation was approved in order to “preserve the state’s assets.”
Rp 620 Juta Untuk Kolam DPRD, Sandiaga: Demi Merawat Aset Negara https://t.co/HpvLuy44aH pic.twitter.com/FaKX2GopAm
— detikcom (@detikcom) November 20, 2017
Meanwhile, Anies said that the TGUPP budget increased twelve-fold because he would rather hire contractors to work directly for him than hire through the private sector for help with the city’s projects (an inference about the previous administration which was rebuffed by the Jakarta Employment Body. Instead, they said that Ahok paid for his staff using his own personal allowance as to not burden the APBD, which was confirmed by Rian Ernest, who was previously a staff member for Ahok’s administration).
Sandiaga also said that the government is targeting a IDR2 trillion increase in income, raising the total to IDR38 trillion in 2018. On the face of it, that still wouldn’t match the budget increase, unless unnecessary allocations are removed from the RAPBD before it’s passed at the end of this year.
(US$1=IDR13,500)
