The Jakarta Forest Land Purchase Budget Is Assessed Of No Urgency During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Illustration. (Angga Nugraha / VOI)

JAKARTA - A number of budgets in the DKI Regional Budget have been tweaked so that they can be allocated for handling COVID-19. Various activities and programs that were deemed to have no urgency were postponed in the following year so that the budget was used to deal with the corona virus outbreak.

However, it turns out that there is still a budget that could have been allocated for COVID-19 but that is still passed in the plan to change the DKI Regional Budget. There is a land acquisition budget for green open spaces in the form of forests in Jakarta.

The budget included in the City Park and Forestry Department program is around Rp. 374 billion. Indeed, there was a reduction in the budget of around Rp. 26 billion from the total initial budget ceiling of Rp. 400 billion. However, the Chairperson of the DKI Jakarta DPRD, Prasetio Edi Marsudi, feels that it is still odd to procure such a large budget.

"I received a report from Commission C regarding activities in changing the APBD. I was also surprised, how come there is still a consumptive budget here. Imagine, when the entire budget in 2020 was trimmed and diverted for the handling and recovery of corona, how come there is still land spending, "Prasetio told reporters on Friday, May 16 evening.

Regarding these findings, Prasetio will ask the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government to cut the entire budget for purchasing green open space in the 2020 budget year. Then, the budget is recommended to increase the cost of recovering the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Because, it's nothing, all of us in the DPRD have diverted the entire budget for AKD activities for the handling and recovery of the corona. It is time for all of us to care about empathy for situations like this, in the interests of residents in need," said Prasetio.

Separately, Member of Commission C (Financial Sector) Jupiter also questioned the budget procurement for the purchase of green open space this year. In fact, several other budgets have been cut and diverted to help deal with the corona virus.

Jupiter feels that the City Parks and Forest Service will no longer need to buy land this year. Because, he said, almost every year the SKPD often buys land, but its use has not been maximized.

"If the purchase of this land is for the benefit of COVID-19, there is no problem. But right now there is a greater interest than purchasing land for green open space. I am very worried that later there will be a lot of funds that should be for the small community, instead it is not accommodated by OK, "said Jupiter.

Apart from that, Jupiter also disclosed that the purchase of another land from the Highways Agency was worth IDR 346 billion. Therefore, in the next budget amendment discussion meeting, Jupiter will ask the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government to cut the two budget ceilings totaling more than Rp700 billion.

"We don't want to be missed. So, later on, all the budgets that will be stipulated in our 2020 revised budget will be more thorough. We will fight for this (land purchase) budget to be zeroed and actually budgeted for what is more useful," he concluded.