Refuting Anies' Argument About Budget Transparency From Ahok-Djarot

E-budgeting illustration (VOI.id)

JAKARTA - DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan blamed the Jakarta APBD e-budgeting (digital auction) system for leaking the draft of the temporary budget priority budget (KUA-PPAS) general policy to the public.

Thursday, October 31, former governor of DKI Jakarta Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (Ahok) stated that the e-budgeting system has a good purpose. Because it was made for transparency and aimed to let the public know so as to minimize the occurrence of corruption.

"The system works well if there is no intention of marking up data input, let alone thieves. To prevent corruption there is only one thing, namely the transparency of the existing system,"

Ahok

He added, thanks to the e-budgeting system, everyone can get data on budget units for each procurement and the amount of budget needed. If the public can find out about it, the less likely it is that the budget can be manipulated.

The e-budgeting system has been planned since Jokowi became Governor of DKI Jakarta through Governor Regulation (Pergub) No. 145 of 2013. Then, the system began operating on the apbd.jakarta.go.id website when Ahok led Jakarta in 2015.

Through this e-budgeting, it was revealed that there was an odd budget for the 2020 KUA-PPAS, namely the procurement of stationery for the DKI Jakarta Education Office in the form of aibon glue of IDR 82.8 billion and pens of IDR 124 billion. Anies said there was a typo from his subordinates regarding the amount of the budget.

The former deputy governor of DKI Jakarta, Djarot Syaiful Hidayat, explained that the matter of data input in the e-budgeting system depends on humans as the users. Therefore, the Jakarta Provincial Government must be able to increase supervision of everyone who has access to input and tinker with the budget in e-budgeting.

"Not everyone can enter for input. Because there is a password, we will find out who is inputting. If the system is leaking, say, it means that the security of the system needs to be improved."

Djarot

"If the system is deemed less sophisticated, then (Anies) 's job should be perfected. But, the essence of e-Budgeting is actually we want to make it transparent so that it can be directly accessed by council friends and the public."

Djarot

Some time ago, DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan assessed that there was a system error in e-budgeting on the apbd.jakarta.go.id website. This is because the Jakarta Provincial Government has never uploaded a budget draft on the APBD website, even though data input has been made.

"It is impossible to buy Rp82 billion of shame glue. We will correct it. This is the fault of the system because it relies on humans (in the verification process). Has this system only been running this year? No. .

Instead of admitting the negligence of his subordinates in observing the data input for each proposed budget unit, Anies blamed the formation of a legacy system for the former Jakarta governor's e-budgeting.

"Today the system is digital, but its not a smart system. Relying on people to correct it. Manual corrections with such a large amount, wherever there is, there is potential (odd budget) that passes high," he said.