In the lead-up to Eid al-Fitr 2023, the Lampung Provincial Government came under intense scrutiny from netizens. This followed criticism from a Lampung resident, Bima Yudho Saputro, who used TikTok to denounce the state of development in his region.
"Firstly, the infrastructure is limited. There are so many stalled government projects in Lampung. For example, Kota Baru; it's been around since I was in elementary school, and I've never heard anything about it since," Bima said in a video uploaded to his TikTok account, @awbimaxreborn.
In his video, he also mentioned the numerous dilapidated roads in Lampung.
"I often discuss roads because they are the most common infrastructure and crucial for economic mobilization in Lampung. But the roads in Lampung are like this: 1 kilometer good, 1 kilometer damaged, and then they just patch them up. Is the government playing snakes and ladders or something?" Bima said.
Bima's criticism resonated with many netizens. In just a week and a half, from April 7th to 18th, 2023, his critical video garnered approximately 2 million likes.
Looking at the Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBD), the Lampung Provincial Government allocated a relatively small amount of funding for capital expenditure, which includes land purchases, equipment and machinery, building construction, roads, irrigation, bridges, and other fixed assets.
According to data from the Ministry of Finance's website, the realization of the Lampung Provincial APBD for capital expenditure in 2022 was only around Rp 4.28 trillion.
This figure is significantly lower than the personnel expenditure, which reached Rp 10.75 trillion. This expenditure covers salaries, allowances, meal money, overtime pay, pensions, and other compensation for civil servants (PNS).
Personnel expenditure consumed 37% of the total realized regional expenditure of Lampung Province in 2022, making it the largest expenditure compared to other expenditure items, as shown in the graph.
Meanwhile, throughout 2022, Lampung Province only had a Regional Original Revenue (PAD) of approximately Rp 6.16 trillion. The majority of its income came from the central government in the form of Transfers to Regions and Village Funds (TKDD), amounting to Rp 20.22 trillion.