Self-interest fosters favoritism in regional allocations: Budget chair

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 10/30/2008 10:28 PM | National

A just distribution of state funds to regions is hard to achieve, a lawmaker said Thursday, as most members of the House of Representatives tend to fight for the sake of the regions they represent.

Harry Azhar Aziz, vice chair of the House budget committee, said during a discussion on the state budget in Jakarta on Thursday the creation of a state budget often favored some regions over others.

Harry said more-populated regions such as Java were represented by more legislators, so Java's provinces received high allocations compared to other provinces.

He cited an example of a naturally resource-rich region, Natuna island, which generated revenue of Rp 20 trillion (US$1.88 billion) for the state this year, but it would only receive back from the central budget Rp 600 billion for its administrative budget next year, only because its interests were not well represented in the House.

"The House should realize that the budget is people's money, not the government's. The most impoverished areas should get the greater portion of the budget instead of the established ones. In reality the rich areas take a greater share for their regional budgets," Harry added.

Allocations were also affected by splitting regencies. Several regions have decided to divided into two or more regencies just so political parties can get access to a separate portion of the central governments allocation, he said.

"Many political agenda affect the drafting of state budgets. I can say that 80 percent of next year's allocation, which amounts to Rp 1,083 trillion, was agreed upon through various political tit-for-tats between parties," Harry said.

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