Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – After failing to obtain state funding for the down payment on their private cars, members of the House of Representatives (DPR) are pushing the government to include Rp 11.2 trillion ($820 million) in "aspiration funds" for lawmakers in next year's state budget.
Ahmadi Noor Supit, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said the proposed fund will be distributed among all 560 representatives and used for any development project of their choosing in their respective electoral regions.
The exact amount of funds each lawmaker will receive ranges between Rp 15 billion and Rp 20 billion and depends on the population size of respective electoral regions. "We propose that the funds be inserted in the 2016 state budget," the Golkar Party lawmaker said.
Similar proposals received widespread criticism from activists and experts who were skeptical as to how the money would be spent ever since it was first proposed in 2010. In particular, they have questioned the lack of clear regulations on what type of projects the funding can be used for and who gets to oversee and audit the projects.
Activists are worried that the proposed fundings could be misused and used to finance political campaigns. They are also concerned about the absolute control each representative has over the projects, leaving open the possibility that corrupt representatives may award the projects to cronies and relatives.
The government and the DPR in 2010 scrapped the plan due to massive public outcry. Several attempts to revive the proposal over the years also failed. But Supit dismissed these worries saying that this time, the proposed funds would have tighter monitoring mechanisms.
"Representatives will only have the right to propose programs to be financed by the funds. The relevant regional governments will be responsible for executing the programs," he said. "The funds will be included in the respective regional budgets. Not one rupiah will be controlled by the representatives."
Supit said that such funding is important for lawmakers who often receive suggestions from their constituents on the type of projects their respective electoral regions need. "This way, there is a guarantee that people's aspirations will be heard," he continued.
House Speaker Setya Novanto said the legislature was discussing how the proposed funds would be distributed and monitored. "This is still a proposal," he said.
Minister for National Development Planning, Andrinof Chaniago, was among those criticizing the proposal, saying that development projects should be left to the executive branch. "Let's all look at the rules and regulations. Does the House have any authority on this?" Andrinof said, as quoted by news portal CNN Indonesia.
The proposal came less than two months after the House failed to pass a regulation that would entitle legislators and other state officials to Rp 211 million each for a down payment on a personal vehicle.
President Joko Widodo in April canceled the regulation just days after it had been signed in response to mounting public outrage over what was widely seen as wasteful use of public funds. The president said that he had not read the regulation carefully, adding he would never had signed off on it had he known what it entailed.
The brouhaha stemmed from a letter dated Jan. 5 from House Speaker Setya to the Cabinet Secretariat, requesting a revision to the allowance for down payments for vehicles for 753 state officials.
Their predecessors received Rp 116.5 million each, under a 2010 presidential regulation signed by the then-President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Setya's letter sought an increase to Rp 250 million. After an evaluation by Cabinet Secretary Andi Widjajanto and later Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro, the final amount approved was Rp 210.89 million per official – or a total of Rp 158.8 billion from the state budget – to afford these public officials the down payment figure.
Many of the high officials so entitled were already provided with cars as part of their office function.