There must no longer be the mentality of sectoral ego."
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has urged to put a stop to the old budget-making tradition in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the national financial planning process.

"We do not want a repetition of the old tradition in which planning and budgeting are not interlinked. Planning and budgeting are not synchronized due to which targeted goals are not met," he stated at a limited cabinet meeting on a draft presidential instruction on the synchronization of national development planning and budgeting at his office here on Wednesday.

He highlighted the importance of discussing future financial planning and synchronization.

He affirmed that synergy and synchronization were the keywords to ensuring that the national development efforts yielded more effective and efficient results.

"I wish to emphasize that matters such as these (budget and planning are not synchronized) must never happen again. I have often said that now is not money follows function but instead money follows program," he pointed out.

President Widodo said planning between sectors, regions, and central and regional governments must be integrated, consolidated, and organized.

"There must no longer be the mentality of sectoral ego. We must begin orienting ourselves to deliver programs that benefit the people and have multiplier effects," he remarked, adding that the budget must be focused on clear priorities.

He stated that the quality of the planning and budgeting process must be improved in terms of their details, so that every ministry or state institution can control them directly.

"The head of the National Development Planning Agency and the finance minister must set an example, so that synergy can really be achieved," he added.

(Reporting by Hanni Sofia Soepardi/Uu.H-YH/INE/KR-BSR)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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