TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Jakarta Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno claims that he had not taken office when members of the Jakarta Legislative Council (DPRD) drastically increased their work visit budget. Sandiaga said that he hopes the problematic budgeting process would be done transparently.

“We can only follow them, and I appreciate that members of the public are monitoring all of this,” said Sandiaga.

Read: Jakarta City Council Wants Rp107 Billion for Working Visits

Since the past week, the public was surprised by the fact that DPRD submitted a budget of Rp346.5 billion in 2018 Jakarta budget. One of its activities that they plan to fund that has taken most of the public’s attention is DPRD Commissions’ work visit budget which amounts to Rp107.7 billion.

The amount has increased dramatically from its original budget of Rp8.8 billion in the 2018 city working plan (RKPD) and from the revised 2017 budget (APBD-P) of Rp28.7 billion.

Jakarta Board Secretary Muhammad Yuliadi said that the budget for Jakarta’s DPRD increased as a direct cause of the increased travel expenses that is mentioned in the Governor’s Decree No. 190/2017. The decree was ratified by Home Affairs Ministry’s Director General of Regional Autonomy Sumarsono who also served as Jakarta’s acting Governor in February 2017.

FRISKI RIANA