Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama has slashed the budget for hosting festivals and events to promote Jakarta next year by nearly 60 percent, alleging markups and inefficient spending, The Jakarta Globe reported.
The governor said the Jakarta Tourism and Culture Agency spent more than Rp 1.2 trillion ($87.7 million) to host a series of festivals in 2014, the bulk of which went toward renting venues and hiring event organizers.
Therefore, the city administration in 2015 has cut the budget for festivals and events to Rp 700 billion. Next year the agency might only get Rp 300 billion and the agency could be barred from hiring private event organizers, particularly for events that the city has been hosting for years.
He said he had instructed the tourism agency to spend more on renovating museums.
Since he became governor a year ago, Basuki has tried to overhaul how city agencies apply for and spend their funding.
These efforts last year put him at odds with City Council members and dragged the budget deliberation process out for months beyond the year-end deadline.
For the past week, the governor has held meetings with his subordinates to discuss budgets proposed by all of the city’s agencies and has scrapped projects that he sees as wasteful and overpriced