TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Population and Civil Registry Agency head Dhany Sukma said that the city legislators agreed on Rp12 billion budget for the purchase of antivirus and information technology (IT) devices in the 2020 regional budget ceiling.

“The budget plan is not lowered for its significant value for the needs of public service,” said Dhany to Tempo, Tuesday, October 5.

The budget of Rp12 billion would be used to purchase the software license of Microsoft Office worth Rp4 billion and Oracle database at Rp6.4 billion. The remaining Rp1.6 billion would be for antivirus license.

Dhany reiterated that the city legislative's Commission A agreed on the budget proposed by the agency during a budget meeting a few days ago. The procurement of antivirus and IT devices aimed at protecting digital data in sub-districts, districts, to agencies offices.

“Public service related to system and software must be protected because it affects the service,” he added. “So we have to protect servers in the administration offices. We have an online development program.”

Previously, the legislative member from the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) highlighted the excessive budget for the procurement of software and antivirus proposed in the 2020 General Budget Policies and Provisional Budget Ceiling and Priorities (KUA-PPAS) at Rp12 billion, which was highly rocketed from last year’s budget at Rp200 million.

IMAM HAMDI