Ezra Sihite & Agus Triyono – Although the House of Representatives has been coming under intense public criticism over several construction projects or plans deemed wasteful and too costly, more such projects are still coming to light.
Civil society watchdog the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) on Monday came out with two more examples of dubiously extravagant spending by the legislative body.
The first was the allocation of a hefty Rp 1.3 billion ($143,000) for the printing of a calendar featuring the faces of the House's own leadership.
"I was given this by a member of the House expert staff," said Fitra's Uchok Sky Khadafi, brandishing a copy of the 13-page wall calendar. Uchok said each of the House's 560 members received between 15 and 20 copies of the calendar. "This is an example of the House's wastefulness, it was not billed competitively [and] compared with normal prices," Uchok said.
The other example he cited was the construction of a new fence, currently underway, between the House grounds and the adjacent Manggala Wanabakti building, home to the Forestry Ministry. If information received by Fitra is confirmed, the Rp 1.2 billion cost of the 200 meter fence works out at $660 per meter.
"We have not yet secured complete information about this project, because unlike the Budget Committee meeting room project, this one did not operate via a tender. We are awaiting confirmation from the House," Uchok said.
Meanwhile, various players in the House were scrambling to show they are taking seriously public outrage over news of projects such as a meeting room renovation costing Rp 20 billion. The 10-by-10-meter meeting room was for the use of one of the very bodies involved in approving House spending.
The House Ethics Council has begun to conduct a series of meetings with the three bodies involved, the Household Affairs Committee (BURT), the House Secretariat General and the Budget Committee.
On Monday, the Ethics Council met with BURT for three and a half hours, asking for an explanation of the cost of the renovations, which Council head Muhammad Prakosa already said he believed was too high.
"We asked [BURT] what was the basis for undertaking the renovations, what was the decision-making mechanism. This is what we'll be going into more deeply, and if we find any inconsistencies we will investigate fully," Prakosa said.
While admitting that the meeting had not come up with any clear findings, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician said the meetings would press ahead over the next few days, when the other two bodies would be asked to account for the decision. "Tomorrow or in the near future we will meet again and invite the secretariat general."
House deputy Pramono Anung said that the scandal was fodder for self-reflection for legislators, who he said did not necessarily read everything they were asked to agree to.
"I see this as something that calls for the House's introspection, not just by the House of Representatives as an institution but by the Budget Committee and the secretariat general. We need to make fundamental changes to our budget management," Pramono said at the House building on Monday.
"Often budget requests are handled too closely, one after another, and the result is that they're not read," he admitted.
Pramono said that other renovation works that had captured public attention were not necessarily over-priced. He cited plans to renovate the toilets in the House building at a cost of Rp 2 billion.
"In the case of the toilets, it's still debatable, because the expenditure of Rp 2 billion is for 560 House members plus visiting members of the public, so it will benefit many people," he said.
[Additional reporting from Suara Pembaruan.]