House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki Alie said on Tuesday that the public should not blindly support calls to dissolve the House Budget Committee amid allegations that it was infested with corruption.

Several cases of bribery involving the committee have spurred calls from activists and legal experts to get rid of the committee. In two cases – - – one concerning high-profile graft suspect Muhammad Nazaruddin, another involving two Ministry of Manpower officials – committee members allegedly received kickbacks for steering state projects to certain companies.

Marzuki, from the ruling Democratic Party, said accusations of rampant corruption within the committee should not be a reason for its disbandment. The committee, he added, is too important.

"Our database on the committee's heavy workload should be made public so people can see what it does," he said. "The Budget Committee is not like activists have been saying."

Activists and politicians have called into question the relevancy of the committee. Committee members are alleged to be among the potential recipients of a Rp 1.5 billion ($175,000) kickback handed to two Manpower Ministry officials by a contractor. The arrest of Nazaruddin, himself a former committee member, further stained its already tainted reputation.

One witness in Nazaruddin's case recently testified that a company owned by the former Democratic Party treasurer had spent around Rp 16 billion in bribes to win contracts related to November's Southeast Asian Games in Palembang and Jakarta.

Tjahjo Kumolo, from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the Budget Committee, composed of 85 legislators from all nine parties at the House, should not have too great a role in distributing the state budget to prevent it from manipulating funding for bribes.

Martin Hutabarat, a lawmaker from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), said it would be unfair to blame just the committee members because others had participated in the lawbreaking as well.

"I don't mean to say we shouldn't fix it. But during the budgeting process both the members of the executive branch and the lawmakers are involved," he said. "We can't close our eyes to these facts. Any solution has to be holistic."

Pramono Anung, a House deputy speaker from the PDI-P, said the Corruption Eradication Committee (KPK) should be given the authority to directly monitor the budgeting talks and process in the House.

Pramono, who opposes doing away with the committee completely, said the body was established in the name of the democratic principle of checks and balances in order to prevent full control of the state budget by the ruling government, as was the case during Suharto's New Order regime.

"Instead of dissolving the committee, I would prefer to bring in a third party to monitor the process," he said.

Anis Matta, a House deputy speaker from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), had a similar opinion. "All of the meetings of the budget committee should be made transparent and open to the public," he said.