TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The secretary of Jakarta provincial administration, Saefullah, likened the budgeting process run by Governor Anies Baswedan and former Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama or Ahok. He said that he had served as the city secretary since July 2014 under the era of Basuki to date.

"I have been in the administration from long ago until now. What we have done now is exactly the same as we did in the previous era," Saefullah said at the City Hall, Thursday, November 7.

The former Central Jakarta Mayor refuted the saying that this year's regional budget was not discussed transparently. He asserted that the city administration did not privately discuss the budget. "That was a huge mistake to accuse us of not being transparent," he said.

Saefullah went on to say that the city was adding a strategic plan forum in the budget discussion. As for the urge to upload the budget ceiling, he added, it would be done after being discussed in the legislative or DPRD.

In response to the findings of several unreasonably huge budget plans, the city secretary simply understood it. "That's only a dummy that still needs to be corrected," he said.

Saefullah's statement contrasted to several legislators in the DPRD who had served as special staffers of Ahok. They explained that every stage of the budgeting process had always been published so that people could monitor every plan and its changes.

TAUFIQ SIDDIQ