Public participation in budgeting process at local government in Indonesia

Bearing in mind that public participation is not only needed in the execution stage, but also in the stage of planning and decision making, this study describes the public involvement (poor fisherman community) in the budgeting process of a local government in a regency in Eastern Java region, Indonesia, and all of obstacles that might be found in the optimization of public participation in the budgeting process. The research is qualitative by using descriptive analytical approach. The findings shows that public participation (fisherman community) still have not been involved directly in the budgeting process. The obstacle encountered at the execution of participation forum in the event of budgeting process is the time discrepancy of the budgeting process execution between the local government and society (fishing communities), the time constraints of fishermen in following the execution of the budgeting process, lack of knowledge, the apathy of the community, and the phenomenon of bicameral planning and budgeting, which are the dichotomizing between the two areas of authority.