Jakarta. The 2016 national budget determined by the government will be evaluated so as to ensure its effectiveness in supporting public welfare and national development programs.
“The budget’s effectiveness should be valued based on its benefit to people’s welfare and national development. We are here to evaluate the effectiveness of the budget,” said Vice President Jusuf Kalla when delivering his remarks to Cabinet ministers and senior officials of ministries and other government institutions at the Government Working Meeting (RKP) held at the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry, on Tuesday (Mar. 22).
The national budget distributed through ministries, he added, is hoped to be effective in building the country, and not the ministries themselves.
“We need to make things right that the national budget is intended for the national interest, and not a certain ministry’s interest. All ministries should put aside ‘sectoral egos’ as frequently called on by the President,” he said.
The Vice President also reminded that the current budget that is relatively big should have clear objectives, particularly to encourage development and private investment.
He also underscored that the amount of a national budget does not necessarily correlate with the economic growth.
“In 2005, we had 495 trillion rupiahs in our national budget revenue and our growth was 5 percent. In 2015, we nearly quadrupled the amount to 1,800 trillion rupiahs yet our economic growth touched only 4.9 percent. There must be something wrong in the way we manage a budget,” argued Mr Kalla.
At the occasion, the Vice President stated government’s plan to cut budgets in the draft revision of the 2017 national budget (APBNP).
“All ministries and government institutions should be prepared to make adjustment by dropping non-priority programs funded by the national budget,” he said.
According to him, the cuts are made in a bid to adjust with the sluggish world and national economy.
Concluding his remarks, the Vice President reiterated the importance of spending budgets based on priority scale for the sake of national development.
