Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – East Nusa Tenggara legislative councillors have quietly pocketed a total of Rp 6.5 billion (about US$723,000) in questionable attendance and communications allowances from the 2006 provincial budget, an official says.
Head of the provincial finance bureau Welly Katipana said in Kupang on Monday he had transferred the money to the legislative secretariat's account in December last year.
The council speaker and three deputies received funds of Rp 216 million and Rp 345 million each for the year, while communications incentives for 55 councillors totaled Rp 5.94 billion, or Rp 92.6 million each.
Asked about the money, provincial secretary Anton Pali Osa said he had paid the attendance and communications allowances into the personal bank accounts of 55 legislators from Dec. 27 to Jan. 7 this year. "The amount I paid out was in accordance with that being allocated, totaling Rp 6.50 billion," Anton said.
The payments were made after the administration and legislature agreed to the revisions to the 2006 budget and a bylaw on the finances of speakers and councillors.
Director of the People's Initiative and Advocacy Development group Sarah Lery Mboeik said Monday the bylaw passed by councillors to grant themselves the allowances contradicted higher laws.
"East Nusa Tenggara's Regional Initiated Income is very small, not even 10 percent of the total budget of Rp 700 billion, suggesting there is an additional burden being put on the province to pay for these allowances," Mboeik said.
The money was sourced from public allocation funds that should have been used to finance development and not spent on the councillors, Mboeik said.
Contacted separately, several councillors acknowledged receiving the money. "I received the money in early January. As a member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), I will return the money if I receive an official instruction by the PDI-P's provincial executive board," Karel Yani Mbuik said.
Karel said the PDI-P had not yet banned legislators from receiving such payments although this was being discussed within the party. "We are prepared to return the money if we are required to," another PDI-P faction member, Viktor Mado Tupen, said.
Golkar faction head Cyrilus Bau Engo also noted his party had not yet issued an official instruction to its members to return the money. "Golkar chairman Jusuf Kalla has not yet instructed us to pay back the money. If he does later, we'll be willing to refund the money," Cyrilus said.