Anies Baswedan Criticized for Making Europe Visit

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Member of Jakarta Regional Legislative Council (DPRD) Gilbert Simanjuntak criticized Governor Anies Baswedan for making an official visit to European countries. He underlined that all agreements between the city administration and other parties, either private, foreign, or out of town, must be approved by the DPRD beforehand.

“The cooperation carried out by the Governor during his remaining term of office of less than six months is completely beyond the knowledge of the DPRD,” said Gilbert in a written statement, Wednesday, May 18, 2022.

Anies visited Europe for eight days. He made a tour to the UK, Germany, and France to meet invitations from friendly countries or sister cities and also witnessed the signing of deals in the transportation sector. 

The collaborations included electric bus services, net zero emission, and the construction of MRT Jakarta for the next phases.

Gilbert said that agreements made by the regional government with other countries must be approved by the council as mandated in Article 101 of Government Regulation in Lieu of Law No. 2 of 2014 on the amendments to Law No. 23 of 2014 concerning regional government.

According to him, the agreement between the city government and other parties abroad must only involve regional-owned enterprises. Besides, they could not ask for regional capital injection (PMD) to launch this cooperation since the city did not ask the DPRD for approval beforehand.

“Foreign cooperation that is reported in connection with Governor Anies Baswedan's visit abroad is not allowed to use APBD (Regional Budget),” said the PDIP politician.

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