You’d have to be mad to think you can get away from unnecessarily spending the City’s budget without incurring the wrath of Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama.
Governor Ahok was angry when he saw how many television ads had been made by various departments of the Jakarta Provincial Government recently. He believes the departments sanctioned the TV ads because they had no other way to spend their surplus budgets.
“How cocky of them. I was shocked when, all of a sudden, there were many Jakarta Provincial Government ads on TV. Those ads were only made to get rid of the budget,” Ahok said at City Hall yesterday, as quoted by Vivanews.
Ahok said the departments could’ve put money to better use by contributing towards productive programs such as revamping the city’s kaki lima stalls.
The governor aims to curb such wasteful spending by enforcing an electronic budgeting system for next year.
“When I use e-budgeting, I can lock their budgets,” Ahok said.
The departments Ahok was referring to are the Fire and Emergency Services, Social Agency, Library and Archives Department, Information Communication and Public Relations Agency, and the Parking Authorities.
