Jakarta Governor wants online budgeting to go national

Jakarta’s Governor wants other Indonesian local governments to use the city’s e-budgeting model.

Jakarta will produce a template that can be adopted by other provincial governments in the country, said Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama.

"If there is a template, other cities across Indonesia may replicate it or just use it as a reference,” he said.

The Jakarta government launched an online system to track government budgets and projects. It was first implemented in 2014, but getting agencies to use it properly has been a challenge for the government.

“There was a very strong reaction from the local parliament because we introduced new approaches to them,” the city’s planning chief, Tuty Kusumawati has told GovInsider.

“Previously they could introduce activities even if they were not a priority for the local government, and some of these proposals were found to be false,” she added.

Her priority this year is to get every single change in the government’s budgetary plans to be reported online.

Also see: Interview with Jakarta’s Planning Chief