There were Rp245 trillion in development budget unused in 2015 that had to be returned to the state treasury, Kumolo said here on Friday.
The factors slowing implementation of development projects in 2015 has to be removed, the minister told governor and heads of district administration in Riau.
The regional administrations need to have good preparations for the project implementation with measured priority scale, he said, adding implementation should start as early as January.
He asked regional development banks (BPD) which are owned by regional administrations should be active in financing development projects in their respective areas.
He criticized some BPDs investing large funds in Jakarta questioning the sense of establishing banks in the regions if they could not contribute to development in the regions.
He called for greater understanding between the regional administration and the law enforcing agencies including police and the prosecution office to prevent fear of criminalization among the regional administrators.
Overzealous anti corruption campaigns has discouraged officials from taking initiative or breakthrough in implementing development project. They feared that failure or mistake could lead them to jail.
Acting Governor of Riau Arsyadjuliandi (Andi) Rachman said Riau spent only 67.84 percent of its budget fund of Rp11 trillion in 2015.
He said in 2016, the provincial administration has set a higher target that spending would reach 90 percent of its budget of Rp11.246 trillion.
"We are confident that budget spending would be better reaching 80 percent-90 percent," he said.
He said Riaus economic slowdown in 2015 was caused more by shrinking oil and commodity prices.
Riaus main export earners are oil and gas , rubber and palm oil.
He said Riaus income in oil and gas production sharing declined sharply to only Rp4 trillion in 2016.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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