"This budget must follow priority programs. It must no longer be merely distributed evenly among working units," the president noted in his state of the nation address at the annual meeting of the Peoples Consultative Assembly at the parliament building here on Tuesday.
In executing the state budget, both the government and DPR are in the process of deliberating a bill on the 2017 state budget and a bill on accountability of the realized 2015 state budget, he stated.
"We have committed to ensuring that the 2017 state budget is drawn up accurately, with the aim of improving the peoples welfare," he affirmed.
Regarding the supervision of the state budget, the president said the DPR has encouraged the State Audit Board (BPK), House Commissions, and members of Parliament to play their optimum role in overseeing it.
"The quality use of the development budget is the task and function of the BPK. Since 2015, the BPK has applied the accrual-based Government Accounting Standards in the government financial reports," he noted.
In more than a year of having applied the standards, information on the accountability of the state budget in the government financial reports has been presented in a more transparent and accountable manner, he pointed out.
In auditing financial reports, the BPK has also laid focus and given priority to programs that can improve the peoples welfare, he remarked.
The head of state expressed hope that the parliament, government, and other stakeholders would be able to utilize the results of BPKs audit to take decisions in accordance with their respective tasks and authority to achieve state goals.
The president further lauded the DPR for ably carrying out its legislative functions.
"In carrying out the legislative functions, we realize that the important aspect is not how many bills have been passed into laws but, in fact, the quality of the laws and how beneficial they are for the people," he explained.
In 2016, the DPR and government have formulated 10 bills to be passed into laws, one of which is related to the peoples savings to enable the low-income group to own decent homes at affordable prices.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
