Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – Amid mounting criticism over lawmakers wasting money on lavish overseas trips, the National Mandate Party on Friday suggested a comprehensive review of all planned overseas trips for lawmakers and the government.
The party, known by its acronym PAN, said such reviews could be conducted by non-governmental organizations.
House PAN faction chairman Tjatur Sapto Edy suggested that lawmakers indeed need to do something about the negative image created by the trips.
The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) called them wasteful and unnecessary. "If legislators went on trips, it was merely for leisure," Fitra said in a statement, adding that the trips were estimated to have cost taxpayers up to Rp 3.7 billion ($410,000).
Tjatur, however, said that criticism must be fair, and that NGOs should not just be attacking legislators, but the government as well.
"Overseas trips for comparative studies are also conducted by the government, and [ministers] spend much more money than the House," Tjatur said.
"These trips must be reviewed, for each one of us, to make them cost-effective. But this should also include the president's overseas trips," he added.
In July, Fitra also criticized President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for wasting too much state money on travel abroad. The president had spent more than Rp 813 billion on such trips between 2004 and 2009 – about Rp 162 billion per year.
The 2010 state budget provides Rp 179 billion for official presidential trips overseas, and Rp 181 billion has been proposed for the 2011 budget, Fitra said.
To compare, the organization said the government spends about Rp 1 trillion on health insurance for 32.53 million poor citizens this year.
Tjatur said the government and the House do need to decrease their number of overseas trips in order for state spending to be more efficient. And he suggested officials use cheaper modes of transport, such as local airlines.
He said his party also urged the House's leadership to carefully consider any plan for overseas trips by lawmakers before giving approval.
Separately, House Speaker Marzuki Alie said lawmakers need to make trips abroad for comparative study as part of their jobs. He said lawmakers need diverse input, which can only be gained through comparative study abroad.
"Like it or not, lawmakers must go abroad for comparative study to enrich their frame reference," he said.
Marzuki said that lawmakers do not spend too much on each and every trip, and that lawmakers receive a daily allowance as regulated by the Finance Ministry.
"And sometimes the amount is not enough to cover all spending during the trip," he added.