Jakarta Council Approves 2015 Budget
The Jakarta City Council, or DPRD, passed the 2015 regional budget authorization bill on Tuesday afternoon, nearly a month past its due date, wrapping up a protracted debate and string of delays over alleged irregularities included in earlier drafts.
Council chairman Prasetyo Edi Marsudi of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) gaveled in the budget’s approval following an acclamation vote in a plenary session attended by 86 of the chamber’s 106 members.
Under the approved budget, the capital plans to spend Rp 73.083 trillion ($5.8 billion) this year, an increase from the 2014 regional budget, which allocated Rp 72.9 billion in spending.
“During deliberations on the 2015 Jakarta regional budget, the budget committee considered many important concerns in the public’s interest,” said Jakarta council deputy speaker Muhammad Taufik of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra).
Taufik said councilors paid special attention to education, funding for which will increase by 27 percent this year, as well as health, towards which the new budget includes spending provisions to convert 18 community primary care clinics (puskesmas) into class D hospitals. That puts Jakarta’s health spending at 9 percent of the region’s budget, consistent with current law, according to Taufik, who also serves as deputy chair on the council’s budget committee.
Despite Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama’s earlier frustration with the slow pace of budget deliberations and suspicions raised over what he described earlier this month as shady earmarks, the governor praised the councilors for their seriousness and attention to detail in scrutinizing the budget.
In mid-December the Jakarta City Council had not even started discussing the capital’s financial plan for the following year, largely due to fractured council politics that led to a delay convening the necessary committees.
As a result, the Home Affairs Ministry’s Dec. 31, 2014, deadline for all regional governments to finalize their 2015 budgets and related regulations came and went, triggering censure measures against council members that included suspension of their pay.
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