Rangga Prakoso – With just three months left in the year, the House of Representatives' performance for 2011 is on its way to being worse than last year's, activists say.
"From our evaluation, we concluded that although there were some improvements, there were also a lot of setbacks," Sebastian Salang from the Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi) said over the weekend.
Formappi said it based its evaluation on four criteria – legislation, budgeting, monitoring and its Ethics Council.
"This is an evaluation of the second year of their 2009-2014 period, and we found that the House has lost more and more of the public's trust," Sebastian said. "Even though they are functioning, their performance still does not meet the public's expectations."
He also said lawmakers' behavior was far from giving the impression that they are in office to serve the interests and aspirations of their constituents. "There are also strong indications of mafias and brokering of budgets, legislation and supervision," Sebastian added.
He said that out of the House's targeted 93 bills for 2011, 70 of which were listed as priorities, it had so far only managed to pass 12 into law, and none of those prioritized.
In July, Ignatius Mulyono, chairman of the House Legislation Body, said legislators had already passed 17 bills and were on track to pass 35 for the whole year, exceeding the previous year's 13.
Ignatius could not be reached for comment on Sunday night, but Sebastian said that Formappi's data had been cross-checked with official House records.
Sebastian also said for the 2011 state budget, the government had originally submitted a proposal for Rp 1,202 trillion ($134.6 billion) in funding, but the House instead approved Rp 1,229 trillion. "There is an additional Rp 27.5 trillion, and it is still unclear which proposed program it was meant for," he said.
Such budget "inappropriations" have occurred in previous years, according to Indonesia Corruption Watch. Citing a 2010 audit by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), ICW said that at least Rp 27.74 trillion was spent inappropriately in 2009.
"They mostly came from budget posts labeled as 'other expenditures' and 'social spending,'" ICW's Fidaus Ilyas told the Jakarta Globe.
Formappi researcher Made Leo Wiratma said the "players" responsible for the accounting discrepancies could be the Budget Committee members now at the center of a graft scandal. It was the House's responsibility to scrutinize budget proposal submissions, he said.
"But what happens is the opposite. They give the government extra funds although we know that every year our government has difficulty spending all of the money," he said.
House Speaker Marzuki Alie has acknowledged the public's poor perception of the legislature and that the body had fallen short in its responsibility to pass legislation. But he has reasoned that the House, though powerful as an institution, still does not have sufficient structural and administrative support to be more effective.
[Additional reporting by Ulma Haryanto.]