Nivell Rayda & Armando Siahaan – Antigraft activists on Thursday demanded that the House of Representatives put a stop to overseas comparative studies, suggesting that the visits were nothing more than extended leisure trips.
The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) said that lawmakers were allocated Rp 122 billion ($13.6 million) for official overseas visits in the 2010 state budget, a 30 percent increase over the 2009 figure.
"The information [allegedly] gathered by these lawmakers is widely available online and in libraries in universities across Indonesia. My son is in junior high. Even he could produce a better report on his school field trip to the Kalibata Heroes Cemetery than the lawmakers who have spent billions traveling overseas," Fadjroel Rachman of the Anticorruption Civil Society Coalition said on Thursday.
The watchdog obtained the data from the House's budget implementation document [DIPA], which details authorized spending by the legislature.
The documentation from Fitra states that for each bill being deliberated, the respective House commission would send delegations to two countries for seven days each, with each group consisting of 13 lawmakers and two secretaries.
"However, the output of the studies and the impact of those studies on the deliberations of bills are appalling," Ronald Rofiandri of the Center for Law and Policy Studies said.
Ronald said that since House members were inaugurated exactly a year ago, they had managed to make 19 overseas studies to 14 different countries.
"The House traveled to Sweden and New Zealand to deliberate the horticultural bill. Upon returning, they only produced a two-page report, and this report depicted how shallow the quality of information they had gathered, and how insignificant the trips were for the deliberation process," Ronald said.
He also claimed that the previous House had made numerous trips as well. "The last House made 143 trips overseas during their 2004-2009 terms. Only three reports were ever produced. One of the reports was only a single page long and that included their schedule," Ronald said.
Ronald added that the schedules of the trips were also problematic. "Some trips, like the one to China [for the purpose of] the social welfare bill, were conducted at a very early stage, even before any deliberations for the bill had been scheduled. Meanwhile, for the immigration bill, the trip was conducted too late, after the working committee had been dismissed."
Deputy House Speaker Anis Matta said the House leadership had agreed that all overseas trips should be explained to the public through a press conference before and after the trip. Anis also said that House speakers had asked the secretariat general to review some bills that may not need comparative studies abroad.