BANDUNG, July 1 (EngineeringDaily) -- The Indonesian government and House of Representatives (DPR) have agreed on funding cuts for infrastructure and transport projects in the fiscal year 2014, with a total value of USD 1.9 billion. The funding cuts affect the Ministry of Public Works with an amount of USD 800 million involved and the Ministry of Transportation with USD 363 million.
According to Kirmanto, the budget cuts will be taken from funds leftover from completed projects, estimated leftover amounts of ongoing projects, and cancellation of works that have not yet begun. Those projects that have been contracted will not be cancelled, but the value of multi-year projects will be reduced and a reallocation will be done again next year.
"With these cuts, the government work goals and the National Medium Term Development Plan (RPJMN) targets will not be achieved," lamented Kirmanto.
However, Minister of Transportation E.E. Mangindaan revealed that the amount of these budget cuts had been made by taking into account a variety of reasons. Such reasons include the objective to safeguard the state budget and the filtering out of transportation projects that do not significantly affect the achievement of the Government Work Plan for 2014.
As the minister went on to explain, "Examples are those projects that are already auctioned, but not yet contracted. So, we pull those that do not significantly affect the Government Work Plan, such as the purchase of official vehicles, office building, and others.”
Mangindaan said that his ministry has not specified the details of the budget cuts in each directorate. The Ministry of Transportation is still assessing and evaluating projects whose budgets will be trimmed. "I do not remember which projects will be trimmed. What is certain is each directorate will have a share," he said.
By Ismail Al Anshori
