"It would be better if the programs are planned as early as possible..."
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Vice President Boediono has asked all cabinet ministers to pay attention to priorities in their working plans for the 2014 fiscal year in view of their tenure which would end soon.

"This would be the ending period of our service in the second Unity Cabinet. Directives have been given by the President. Our goal is finishing our jobs maximally," he said at a meeting on government`s working plans for 2014 at his office here on Thursday.

Based upon experiences in the years before he wished the plans for the 2014 fiscal year would be formulated carefully.

With regard to challenges which are not light the vice president said special attention must be paid to two things.

Firstly, leaders in ministries and state institutions must scrutinize the list of priorities in their working plans for the 2014 fiscal year to assure that all programs have been elaborated in detail to smooth implementation and prevent revision.

"It would be better if the programs are planned as early as possible to prevent possible revisions. Indeed it would be difficult to achieve a zero-revision as changes often occur during implementation but revisions must be minimized," he said.

Secondly, the vice president said, it must be assured that all government officials must be able to take steps that would help boost economic growth without relying too much on budget funds such as formulating policies and regulations and smooth implementation of state-owned companies` projects or public-private partnership projects that have been underway but still hindered by various problems.

"Although the projects are not funded by the state budget their implementation must be supported," he said.

The vice president also called on the ministers to check by themselves their priorities in detail in the next two or three weeks` time.

"Targets must be put in detail clearly to minimize possible changes. The general reference is the President`s directives in 2013 and aims of the policies for national development priorities," he said.

Boediono hoped Bappenas (national development planning agency) has an optimal system of selection as the reference due to a limited room in the 2014 budget.

If necessary he said Bappenas could use resources from outside such as the ministry of finance, Bank Indonesia, the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Alleviation and the Presidential Working Unit for Development Supervision and Control (UKP4) to select priorities in the working plans of the ministries and state institutions.

"Ministries and state institutions must be ready to deal with sharp proposals. Bappenas must have a screening system to accelerate process of budgeting and its implementation," he said.

(reporting by Ahmad Wijaya, editing by Yoseph Hariyadi)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2013