Delayed Expenses Of DKI Jakarta Budget Discussion

Budget discussion meeting at DPRD DKI Jakarta (Diah Ayu Wardhany / VOI)

JAKARTA - The delay in discussing the DKI budget has an impact on the work of the executive and legislature. DKI Regional Secretary Saefullah prohibits his subordinates from making work visits (kunker) outside the province until the end of the year.

For now, the ranks of ASN to DKI officials must prioritize the stages of working on the 2020 budget draft until it is legalized. "We in the executive branch do not have permission to leave before the APBD is finalized. So everyone must be present and obey the schedule well," said Saefullah in a joint meeting with the Deliberative Council at the DPRD DKI Building, Central Jakarta, Monday, November 25.

The Pemprov ban is in line with the instructions in the legislative ranks. Jakarta DPRD Chairman Prasetio Edi Marsudi also cages council members so they do not carry out the kunker. In fact, members of the DKI Jakarta DPRD are scheduled to carry out two work visits throughout 2019, namely 1 and 2 December 2019. The plan had to be canceled.

"Kunker will be eliminated during the budget discussion until the 30th. Anyway, we maximize the APBD. There is no commission account, there is no faction kunker, (kunker) is held first," said Prasetio at the same place.

This kunker prohibition is a risk because the discussion of the 2020 regional budget draft has already been delayed from the deadline. The DKI Provincial Government and the DPRD have just realized that the delay in discussions from the start will make them inconvenient. In fact, at the beginning of the discussion on general policy on the temporary budget priority-ceiling (KUA-PPAS) since October 23, the DKI Provincial Government and DPRD were optimistic that they would knock on the budget before November 30.

However, in its development, the budget proposals that have been discussed in the KUA-PPAS have turned out to be a deficit of up to IDR 10 trillion. The proposed DKI budget has jumped to Rp97 trillion. In fact, based on the calculation of the financial revenue plan in 2020, the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government will only receive an income of IDR 87 trillion.

Swelling of the budget

Based on data received from the DKI Regional Planning and Development Agency (Bappeda), there are a number of budget items that have swelled. The swelling is in the budget to subsidize the premium of 5.1 million people who receive premium assistance (PBI) for the Social Security Administering Body (BPJS) for Health.

The proposed initial budget is IDR 1.4 trillion for the subsidy. However, the DKI Provincial Government then proposed an additional budget of IDR 1.16 trillion and the total was IDR 2.5 trillion due to the increase in BPJS Health contributions nationally starting 2020. Then, another budget swelling is the salary for other individual service providers (PJLP) within the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government to participate increase in provincial minimum wages (UMP).

In total, there was an increase in PJLP salaries of IDR 451 billion. Not only that, there is also an increase in BPJS Health contributions for civil servants (PNS) which the DKI Provincial Government has to pay for Rp 275.99 billion. DKI needs an additional two days, on November 27 and 28, to re-comb the budget so that the nominal value can be cut according to the income figures.

Here, the work of the DPRD and Pemprov in designing the budget is getting more dense. On November 29, the DPRD and Pemprov passed a general policy on the temporary budget priority ceiling (KUA-PPAS) through an MoU. Then, on December 2, the Governor of DKI, Anies Baswedan, gave a speech about the Draft Regional Regulation on APBD. From December 3 to 10, discussion of the RAPBD is scheduled from the commission level to the final view by the DPRD.

On 11 December, the RAPBD was passed. Then, the RAPBD is brought to the Ministry of Home Affairs for evaluation within 15 days. The final stage, the evaluation result RAPBD is stipulated as Perda APBD 2020. The DKI Provincial Government and DPRD are forced to disobey Government Regulation Number 12 of 2019 concerning Regional Financial Management. Article 106 PP 12/2019 states, regional heads and DPRD are required to ratify the draft regional budget (APBD) no later than one month before the start of the fiscal year or 30 November.

Then, they looked for other provisions, namely Government Regulation Number 12 of 2017 concerning Guidance and Supervision of the Implementation of Regional Government, which states that the ratification of the draft perda on the APBD has a deadline until before the start of the 2020 fiscal year.

DKI Regional Secretary Saefullah asked for an announcement. This is because the discussion on the draft has been delayed from the start due to a change in the period of the DKI DPRD from 2014-2019 to 2019-2024. "In the middle there is a DPRD transition. Be patient," said Saefullah.

Contacted separately, the Director General of Regional Finance at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Syarifuddin, stated that the decision violated the regional financial planning stages. This is because they are targeting the RAPBD to pass from 30 November. Even so, Syarifuddin could not confirm the existence of administrative sanctions from the Ministry of Home Affairs to the DPRD and Pemprov DKI. What is clear, Syarifuddin admits that the Ministry of Home Affairs will be inconvenienced in evaluating the DKI RAPBD if it only has 15 days.

"If the ratification is more than November 30, it means we will evaluate it at least 15 days later. That is a red light because (the RAPBD evaluation) of DKI is thick. The period of 15 days to evaluate (feels) empot-empotan," said Syarifuddin.