Governor of Riau Islands Ansar Ahmad informed on Saturday that the province recorded the highest regional budget (APBD) spending realization of 96.54 percent to rank first in Indonesia in the 2022 fiscal year.

The achievement reflected an improvement compared to 2021, when Riau Islands was among the top five provinces in terms of spending realization, which was recorded at 94.52 percent.

“For the percentage of revenue realization of Riau Islands 2022 APBD, we also achieved good result, which is ranked fifth in Indonesia with a figure of 107 percent. Riau Islands is below East Kalimantan, Bangka Belitung Islands, East Java, and West Kalimantan,” he informed here on Saturday.

Ahmad lauded the heads of regional government agencies (OPD) and all staff who worked hard for the realization of Riau Islands’ APBD in 2022. He said that the achievement was inseparable from the routine APBD realization evaluation meetings that he led throughout 2022.

“Through evaluation meetings, we can immediately seek quick and right solutions if there are obstacles in the implementation of APBD,” he added.

He said he is optimistic that, given the good spending and revenue realization, Riau Islands will get a bigger regional incentive fund (DID) in 2023.

“In 2022, Riau Islands received a DID of Rp18 billion. This year, it will definitely be higher, considering that the realization of APBD spending is the highest,” he remarked.

To this end, he stressed that all district and city governments must hasten the acceleration of 2023 APBD spending in an effective and targeted manner.

The governor said that district heads and mayors must play an active role in monitoring the implementation of APBD to ensure it is absorbed maximally to boost the development and economy of the region and the country.”If the budget absorption is high, there must be a bonus from the central government through DID,” he added.

Source: Antara News