Gets Central Attention Because Spending Is Still Low, Governor Of North Kalimantan Promises Maximum Work

JAKARTA - The provincial government of North Kalimantan (Kaltara) is known to have a budget absorption that is not too significant towards the end of the first half of 2022.

The Governor of Kaltara Zainal Arifin Paliwang revealed that this matter had even received special attention from the central government.

"Kaltara is one of the provinces where the realization of its expenditure is the concern of the central government," he said in a press statement quoted on Friday, June 24.

To overcome this, Zainal will ask all Regional Apparatus Organizations (OPD) and related bureaus to spur the realization of the 2022 APBD regional expenditures.

"I ask all OPD/Bureau heads to accelerate regional spending, continue to regularly monitor PPTK, PPK and third parties so that they are carried out properly, effectively and efficiently," he said.

Zainal revealed that accelerating the realization of the APBD is one of President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi) directions because absorption in the regions plays a very important role in supporting economic growth nationally.

"In the remaining time, I remind you to return to work optimally, pursue the absorption of APBD expenditures," he said.

For information, this youngest province in Indonesia has only realized a budget of Rp. 602.7 billion until May 31, 2022. In fact, the total budget ceiling for this year's APBD has reached Rp. 2.4 trillion.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri) released that the absorption of spending for all regions until last month was very low, at Rp. 253.3 trillion or only reached 21.43 percent of the total budget allocation.

Furthermore, Zainal said that his party would comply with the policy of allocating 40 percent of the budget for spending on domestic products.

"Through the e-catalog scheme, we can now anticipate corruption loopholes, accelerate the realization of spending on goods and services, and increase people's income through MSMEs," concluded Kaltara Governor Zainal Arifin Paliwang.