Jakarta. Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama has guaranteed Jakarta’s 2015 budget will take effect by April 20 so key city projects can be carried out.

“We are waiting for the signature of the Home Affairs Minister. By April 20, the city budget will be ready,” Basuki said at City Hall on Wednesday.

Jakarta’s 2015 budget is long overdue, largely as a result of disagreement between the governor and councilors. 

Basuki and the City Council clashed after the governor submitted for the approval of the Home Affairs Ministry a different version of the 2015 draft budget from the one the council had 
accepted.

The discrepancies between the two versions amount to Rp 12 trillion ($920 million), a figure that Basuki has called “stealth funds” and proof of councilors’ conspiracy to mark up the value of several projects in the 2015 budget.

Basuki accused councilors of surreptitiously adding wasteful spending to the capital’s budget without his approval.

The council unanimously voted to launch an inquiry into the governor on the grounds that his move to submit the lower budget was unlawful and in contempt of the council’s authority.

The deadlock was resolved only after Vice President Jusuf Kalla intervened, leading Basuki and councilors to reluctantly agree to set this year’s expenditures to Rp 72.9 trillion. 

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Source: The Jakarta Globe