Nivell Rayda & Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – The rumbling voices of opposition to lavish spending by the government grew louder on Thursday when a watchdog claimed the president was budgeted a Rp 893 million ($100,000) clothing stipend for 2010.

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) said the allocation was part of the Presidential Palace's Rp 203.8 billion budget, as stated in the House of Representatives' budget implementation document (DIPA), which details government spending authorized by the legislature.

"This is truly insensitive to the millions of poor people who can't even afford to buy new clothes once a year," said Uchok Sky Khadafi, the advocacy coordinator for Fitra.

Uchok added that the palace had been allocated Rp 42 billion for furniture, Rp 60 billion to renovate the State Secretariat building, Rp 49 billion for security blockades and Rp 52 billion for the president's security detail.

The claim comes amid criticism of overseas trips by House legislators, which have been dismissed as wasteful junkets by watchdogs.

However, State Secretary Sudi Silalahi, a close aide of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, called the wardrobe claim baseless, saying the president used his own money to buy clothing.

"You can ask the head of the Presidential Palace or you can ask me," Sudi said at the palace on Thursday. "Either way, there's no such budget for clothing."

Uchok said the wardrobe budget "allows the president to spend Rp 18 million a week on clothes," and urged the House to remove the stipend from the 2011 budget and slash other proposed expenses by as much as 50 percent.

"The money should be allocated to more useful things such as job creation schemes or to postpone the proposed electricity rate hike," Uchok said. "The reallocation of the budget would not only be meaningful but would create a sense of social justice for the people."

Fitra this week took the government to task over the Rp 19.5 trillion budget for official trips this year, which the government plans to increase to Rp 20.5 trillion for 2011.

The group said the travel budget was shared by 13 state institutions, and included Rp 179 billion for presidential trips and Rp 170 billion for trips by members of the House. The palace has proposed an additional Rp 2 billion for the president's travels, Fitra said.

The group previously criticized Yudhoyono in July for wasting money on trips abroad. The president spent more than Rp 813 billion of state funds on trips between 2004 and 2009 – or about Rp 162 billion a year.