Budget Delay: Between Local Capacity, Bargaining or Political Interaction in Three Study Cases

Rapid decentralisation in Indonesia has increased the importance of local government at a district level in delivering public services as well as shifting a large portion of public funding to the district governments. Therefore, the local government budget delay has become a huge issue as it is not only delaying the delivery but also lowering the capacity of local government. This research aims to understand the problems of budget delay in Indonesian districts. Three districts are chosen as study cases where interviews and group discussions are conducted. It finds there are human capacity and administrative issues which have slowed down the process. Nevertheless, the effort to deliver the election promise has not only brought a lengthy bargaining process but also undermined the budget participatory process. This is intensified by the political interaction process in the three study cases.