Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The funds given to lawmakers to visit their constituents during their one-month recess are prone to abuse due to a lack of standard accountability procedures, say anti-graft activists and analysts.

The government allocated Rp 27 billion (nearly US$3 million) on May 6 to finance trips by the 550 members of the House of Representatives to their electoral districts during the current recess, so that they could hear directly from their constituents. The legislators are allowed up to Rp 50 million each to cover the costs of transportation, accommodation and meetings with constituents.

Sources at the House secretariat general said Friday that more than 40 percent of lawmakers have received recess funds.

The House ended its session on June 16 for a one-month recess, during which lawmakers usually hold meetings with constituents. Critics said the recess funds could be spent on other purposes due to the absence of internal supervision in the House.

"If the recess fund is booked as part of lawmakers' income and the recipients are not required to uphold standard accountability, it is quite prone to corruption," Ibrahim Zuhdi Fahmi Badoh of Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) said at a discussion here Friday.

He said the ICW has reason to worry about the funds being misused because the House has failed to exercise good oversight in other areas. "How can the public be convinced of the field tour's effectiveness while the House has performed poorly in carrying out its legislative, budgetary and social control functions?" Ibrahim asked.

He also charged that most legislators have been spending the recess participating in their local party meetings, rather than holding forums with voters. "Legislators should play a role as parliamentarians or people's representatives rather than as party figures during the field tour," he said.

Former legislator Imam Churmen said, based on his own nearly 30 years in the House, the field tour during the recess has been frequently abused. Imam was a legislator with the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) from 1971 to 2004. He said many legislators often spent only a handful of days out of their recess seeing constituents, or did not see them at all in order to keep what was then a small amount of recess funds.

"Before 1999, legislators did not receive any funds during recess. After that, we received only Rp 7 million each," he explained.

Mahfudz Siddiq, chairman of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) faction in the House, said more than 40 percent of the party's 45 legislators have already received recess funds to cover their spending during their field tours.

"Our faction has decided to receive the recess funds, and all faction members are required to be transparent in spending the funds and to account for their field tours following the recess," he said.

House Secretary-General Faisal Djamal said his office has established technical and administrative procedures in distributing the funds. He added that legislators must be able to show how they used the money.

"Legislators must sign several forms about the proper use of funds and be accountable for their trips through their respective factions," he said. He added, however, that he had no authority to supervise whether the funds would be spent or pocketed, or used according to their specified purpose.

Faisal explained that Rp 31.5 million of each legislator's recess funds was intended to finance at least seven meetings with relevant groups of people. The remaining Rp 18.5 million was meant to cover the lawmaker's transportation, entertainment and accommodation fees.

The deputy chief of the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), Baharuddin Aritonang, said legislators should give a financial accounting of their trips and activities during the recess in accordance with the standard audit procedures. He said the spending would be audited.

"Ideally, the House secretariat general should set up an internal audit team to avoid irregularities in the House's activities, including the field tour," he said.

It has been difficult for the BPK to uncover any suspicious use of House finances in the past, however, because the audit agency has handed over its results to the legislature.