Road in Yahukimo District, West Papua – Jubi
Jayapura, Jubi – Access to quality transportation to connect indigenous Papuans still leaves much to be desired, Papua Governor Lukas Enembe said. The lack of road construction is due to a budget shortfall for infrastructure that is annually allocated through the Special Autonomy funds.
According to the government, the budget shortfall up to the end of fiscal year 2015 has affected the construction of provincial roads, which are of 2,065 kilometers, 41.65 percent is solid road while 58.34 percent is the dirt road. Meanwhile, 2,682.85 kilometers of road access in the provincial road planning is still the forest areas and/or not yet constructed to connect the services center of indigenous Papuans.
Additionally, the additional budget from the Special Autonomy funds for 2016 of more than Rp 1 trillion for the road and transportation, and the Special Allocated Budget for the road of Rp 350 billion only meet the requirement of regular maintenance cost of 860 km x Rp300 million = Rp 258 billion, of periodic maintenance and asphalt improvement of 300 km x Rp 4 billion = Rp 1,2 trilion.
“It means there is 800 km of the dirt road not be maintenance,” said Elia Loupatty, the first assistant of Papua Province this week.
He measured the additional infrastructure budget from the annual budget of the Special Autonomy funds is very limited, thus it is hard to reach the target of Special Autonomy 2031 to connect the quality transportation access to the services center of indigenous Papuans.
“Therefore, this technical meeting is expected to build a synergy in the development plan between the central, provincial and regional or municipal governments in determining the priority of handling and to collectively fight for the increment of budget allocation in line with Papua Special Autonomy,” said Loupatty.
Similarly, the sector of housing and clean water development which is not becoming the public requirement also becomes a development priority, because the policy on the acceleration of the infrastructure development as well as another strategic sectors that has been determined in the vision and mission of Papua Development 2013-2018 to become a joint commitment with the government/municipal governments.
“From 80 percent of allocation budget, the regional/municipal governments obliged to allocate budget for housing construction and clean water services each year,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Head of Papua Public Works Office Mikael Kambuaya said the coordination meeting on Public Works is very important to synergy program and activities that are more measurable.
“This forum is very strategic so that target and policy goals program could be achieved in each fiscal year,” said Kambuaya. (Alexander Loen/rom)
