TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-Vice President Jusuf Kalla or JK called on regional governments to allocate their regional budget (APBD) efficiently, particularly funds transferred from the central government, such as general allocation funds (DAU) and special allocation funds (DAK).

“I’m calling on regional heads to be efficient in running their administrations, because without efficiency, the development budget and its percentage will not improve. It means, growth and welfare will not improve,” JK said when inaugurating the executive board of the Indonesian Regency Administrations Association (Apkasi) in Jakarta on Thursday, May 5, 2016.

The Vice President revealed that the central government would provide more authority to regional governments to manage the allocation funds. He added that the amount of funds transferred to regional governments in 2016 reached Rp770 trillion (US$58.3 billion), increasing three folds over the last decade. JK said that the increasing amount of funds reflected central government’s commitment to optimizing potentials of regions to ensure their autonomy.

"Previously, funds for ministries and agencies were larger than those for regional governments. This year, the amount is equal. In ten years, funds transferred from the central government to regional governments increased by 350 percent. This year, the transferred funds amount to Rp770 trillion,” he added.

However, Kalla viewed that the increase in budget allocation would not result in the achievement of the economic growth target set at 5.3 percent by the end of this year. The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded that Indonesia’s economic growth in the first quarter of 2016 was at 4.92 percent.

“There are many reasons behind it. It could be the inflation rate, debts to be repaid and rising government spending,” JK explained.

Therefore, Kalla reiterated that regional governments should implement the moratorium on civil-servant recruitment and refrain from expanding their offices. JK said that government had been spending a huge amount of money for civil servant salary and unnecessary office buildings.

ANTARA