PSI: Anies Baswedan Must Take Responsibility for Budget Fiasco

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) of Jakarta considered the resignation of two city officials amid the polemics of the capital's odd budget resulted from a lack of transparency in the 2020 Jakarta Budget (APBD) plan.

“Since the beginning, the PSI is calling for transparency, so everyone can see the budget in detail. We believe this will help Jakarta state apparatus,” said the party's spokesman, Rian Ernest, at the Jakarta Council, Monday, November 4.

Rian said that no city official was to be blamed or even stepped down should the regional budget be published because the public was also keeping an eye on it.

Officials who resigned were the head of the Jakarta Development Planning Board (Bappeda), Sri Mahendra, and the head of the Tourism and Culture Agency, Edi Junaedia.

Rian added his party lamented the resignation of the two figures as the responsibility should have been taken by Governor Anies Baswedan.

According to Rian, Anies Baswedan refused to publicize the draft of the 2020 budget ceiling since the beginning. The PSI had also demanded the governor to do so since August. Anies reportedly submitted the file of the 2020 General Budget Policies and Provisional Budget Ceiling and Priorities (KUA-PPAS) to the Council last July.

Recently, during discussions on the file, several unreasonable budgets, such as the procurement of glue worth Rp82 billion up to pens at Rp123 billion, were found.

Rian suspected that the city’s internal discussions did not carry out supervision on the draft budget ceiling, so such polemics surfaced.

TAUFIQ SIDDIQ