Anita Rachman, Jakarta – The House of Representatives' Ethics Council has said that it will scrutinize lawmakers' attendance at all meetings, not just plenary sessions.

"Attendance correlates with productivity," council chairman Nudirman Munir said on Friday. "Soon we will check the attendance at each commission meeting, because this is more important. Commissions are where legislation is discussed."

The poor attendance record of lawmakers at plenary sessions has been the source of public outrage in recent weeks.

But Nudirman said merely checking lawmakers' attendance at full meetings was not enough, and that their performance could best be assessed at the commissions, House special committees and working groups.

"How can we pass laws and make them good if many of us are skipping commission meetings?" he said. Nudirman said checking the attendance records at the commissions would not be easy but must be done.

The Ethics Council has vowed to make the attendance issue its top priority and summon the worst offenders when the House resumes in mid-August.

Nudirman said at least 12 lawmakers who had missed more than three plenary sessions in a row would be summoned. The council also would ask parties to provide data on lawmakers' work schedules to determine if that caused them to miss meetings.

The current crop of lawmakers took their seats in late 2009 and have so far only passed seven laws, all recently. A total of 70 bills have been proposed by the legislature and the government.

"We have 16 bills at the moment that are being discussed," House Legislative Body chairman Ignatius Mulyono said on Friday. They include bill on protocol, legal aid, cultural heritage, horticulture and the currency.

Ignatius, from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's ruling Democratic Party, has harshly criticized absenteeism and supports using fingerprinting to enforce attendance.

Saan Mustofa, also from the Democrats, said missing plenary sessions or commission meetings was unforgivable. "We are being paid to talk, discuss and attend meetings. So if we are not doing any of those things, then we are not doing our jobs," he said.

Saan said it was hard to believe some lawmakers were missing meetings after less than a year in the job. He said they needed to realize they had three priorities: legislating, monitoring and budgeting, with the most important being producing quality laws.

Saan said there should be monitoring, as well as a system of punishments and rewards supervised by the parties. "The Ethics Council must follow up the reports. It should give warnings and let each faction know the results," he said.