The head of an Indonesian budget watchdog said today his NGO would not make a public apology to the House of Representatives, as demanded by the House secretary general Nining Indra Saleh.

On Friday, Nining demanded that the Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) take back its statements about the House communication budget and publicly apologize in the national media.

Fitra had stated that, based on the House of Representatives' 2011 budget implementation documents (DIPA), the House allocated Rp 151 billion ($18 million) to lawmakers as an "intensive communications allowance," which covers a wide range of services but primarily means cellphone use.

Fitra claimed they received the DIPA data from the House Secretariat. But Nining said there is no communication budget in 2011 DIPA, meaning Fitra's statement is misleading.

"Fitra's release is not only capable of misleading public opinion, it is also a violation of the press code of ethics and universal human rights – in this case the rights of lawmakers," she said in a press statement. "If they don't carry out our request in three days, we will make it a legal matter."

But Fitra's secretary-general, Yuna Farhan, said the watchdog group wouldn't back down. "We won't apologize and won't take back our media release [about the budget]," Yuna said in a press conference on Tuesday, as quoted by news portal Okezone.com.

Fitra, Yuna said, especially questioned the double budget allowances lawmaker were said to be receiving – Rp 14 million monthly for 'intensive communications allowance,' and another 'intensive communications allowance' of Rp 8.5 million.

"There has been no explanation as to what the allowances are for or what the differences are between the two allowances," he said. "The House Secretariat became panicked. Why? It shows that the House Secretariat is the one with the most responsibility for budget management," he said.