ACEH GOVT SATISFIED ABOUT BRR'S PERFORMANCE

Banda Aceh, April 16 (ANTARA) - The Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) provincial administration expressed satisfaction about the performance of the Aceh-Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) in its four-year mission to rebuild NAD following the devastating tsunami in 2004.

"In the world we have criticisms and blasphemy but what the BRR has done in Aceh, although not 100 percent perfect, was 94 percent successful and extraordinary," NAD Governor Irwandi Yusuf said here on Thursday.

The government made the statement at a function to host a luncheon for BRR Chief Kuntoro Mangkusubroto before the latter left for Jakarta after completing his mandate in Aceh.

According to the mandate, BRR service in Aceh and Nias came to an end on April 16, 2009.

Earlier, the governor predicted that the BRR would reconstruct and rehabilitate Aceh from the impact of tsunami as much as 60 percent but the agency was unexpectedly able to complete more than 90 percent of its task.

Commenting on criticism that BRR left the rest of its task unfinished, the governor said it did not mean that BRR was unsuccessful.

"If there is a similar board like BRR in the other part of the world that can complete its task 100 percent, we can say BRR has failed but in fact BRR has no comparison," Irwandi Yusuf said.

The governor added that without the presence of BRR in Aceh, he was unsure trillions of rupiahs disbursed by the government and donor countries for the rehabilitation and reconstruction in the province would be able to be spent out in four years.

He said that without BRR's presence in Aceh, the province would not be rehabilitated and reconstructed like it is today.

"Therefore BRR is considered successful in its mission in Aceh. Even if there is something left unfinished, it is the responsibility of central government and provincial administration to carry on," the governor said.