Indonesia's gaffe-prone speaker of the House of Representatives has done it again, this time suggesting that the United Nations Development Programme should vacate their offices in the legislature because it is a "foreign" nongovernmental organization.

Speaking on Friday, Marzuki Alie, speaker of the House, also known as the DPR, said he would "seek an explanation" from the House secretary general about the UNDP's presence in the House compound. "No NGO's are allowed inside the compound and the UNDP is a foreign NGO," Marzuki claimed.

UNDP assistant country director Irman G Lanti said Marzuki was wrong in his classification of the global development network. "We are a UN agency and Indonesia is a member of the UN," Irman explained.

He said, however, that if Marzuki continued to object to the agency's presence, it would vacate the DPR.

Michele Zaccheo, director of the United Nations Information Center, said UN agencies generally had their own premises but sometimes they were housed in government offices. He said for "practical reasons," some UN staff able to provide technical capacity support to governments were housed in government offices.

"These arrangements are common the world over, and they are entirely at the discretion of the host country," Michele said.

"Indonesia is a member of the United Nations, and the UN agency presence in Indonesia is at the request of the government. It is part of a joint partnership agreement with the government to support its programs for the benefit of the Indonesian people, particularly the poorest and most vulnerable."

On its Web site, UNDP Indonesia says it is working in four priority areas, namely democratic governance, poverty reduction, crisis prevention and recovery, and the environment and energy. The agency was "also committed to the fight against HIV/AIDS and the promotion of gender equality," it says. (Antara, JG)