Tifa Asrianti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A political expert has urged the Jakarta administration and the City Council to release the 2008 budget proposal to the media to make up for the fact a definite budget has not been released.

"If the public could see the details of the budget, they could question its accuracy and urgency," Andrinof Chaniago said at a public discussion Monday.

Andrinof said the administration could publish the draft budget on its official website or in newspapers.

"The cost of placing advertisements in newspapers is much less than what possible irregularities might cost. I believe the transparent deliberation of budgets can cut irregularities by up to 50 percent," he said.

Monday's discussion on an effective and efficient city budget was organized by the newly launched Telegraf-News.com as well as Galaksi, an association of construction companies.

It was also attended by council member Sayogo Hendrosubroto, city administration officials and representatives from local businesses.

Andrinof said the city budget had increased by around Rp 2 trillion every year for the last five years, but the impact of the increases had been hardly felt as the budget was not transparent.

He said the lack of public participation in City Council budget deliberations resulted in some of the figures set being higher than market prices.

He cited a case in which Rp 75 million (approximately US$8,200) was allocated for printing 5,000 booklets about gubernatorial decisions, meaning that each book was priced at Rp 15,000.

He said the figure could have been cut to Rp 25 million if the then market price of Rp 5,000 per book was used.

The 2008 city budget is still being deliberated by the City Council and the city administration, despite the fact the budget should have been submitted to the Home Ministry for confirmation by Jan. 15.

The council recently raised the value of the draft budget to Rp 20.59 trillion from the Rp 20 trillion originally proposed by the city administration.

The council cut Rp 843.56 billion from the administration's priority programs and allocated some Rp 3 trillion to new programs.

The priority programs include busway projects, the construction of the East Flood Canal, empowerment programs for subdistrict residents and free health care and education programs.

In response to the changes, the city administration said the affected programs were important to the public.

"The priority programs have been approved in general budget policies. The City Council should not change budget allocations in this area because the programs are for the benefit of the public," Governor Fauzi Bowo said.

"We will discuss the budget again with the City Council," he added.

Fauzi said the administration would find a way to continue the construction and development of busway corridors with a limited budget.

Budi Widiantoro, the deputy head of the Public Works Agency, said his office would request more funding for the busway project in August.

"We will make the most of our limited budget," he said.