Anita Rachman – With lawmakers turning a deaf ear to criticisms of the controversial new House of Representatives office building, a group of watchdogs is preparing to file a lawsuit to stop the plan from going ahead.

Yuna Farhan, secretary general of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), said on Sunday that it and several other nongovernmental organizations would file a lawsuit at the South Jakarta District Court against the House.

"We will file the lawsuit against the House speaker, who is also the chairman of the House's Household Affairs Committee [BURT], Marzuki Alie," he said. "But of course, our lawsuit is basically against the House of Representatives as an institution."

BURT is the body responsible for deliberations over the planned office building.

Yuna said the Rp 1.13 trillion ($130 million) project was a violation of the 2003 Law on State Finances, which requires the efficient and economical management of state funds. "If they drop their plan, the nation could build more than 4,000 houses for the poor," he said.

The House announced on Friday that construction of the new building would go ahead, with 11 construction companies having registered to bid for the project.

Sumirat, an official overseeing the construction, said each of the lawmakers' new rooms would be about 110 square meters and cost about Rp 800 million, minus the furniture.

"It is possible that each room could cost Rp 1 billion," said M. Arwani Thomafi, a BURT member from the United Development Party (PPP). "I can't say whether that's too expensive – we only know that price is a standard price for a state building."

Arwani said the House and BURT welcomed criticisms from the public and NGOs, adding that he thought it showed good initiative from the public.

"I don't think we could drop the plan now, as all factions have agreed to the idea," he said. "All we can do now is efficiently and transparently expend the budget."

Refrizal, a BURT deputy chairman from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said the House was not turning a deaf ear to public criticisms, "such as the one about the swimming pool." "We are listening to what the people say," he said.

The original designs for the new building included a swimming pool, but that was taken out following a public backlash.

Nonetheless, Refrizal said it was too late to abort the project. He said the public needed to understand that the new building would be a long-term benefit for the country and not merely used by the current crop of lawmakers at the House.

Lawmakers have previously argued that they need more office space at the House complex because they plan to have more advisers. The new building is also planned to host a new legislative analysis center.

"In the past, people also rejected Sukarno's idea for Gelora Stadium, and also Taman Mini Indonesia Indah," Refrizal said. "We need to build it because it's not only for today, but for the long-term, for subsequent lawmakers, for the future."