Ezra Sihite & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Finger-pointing in the wake of a number of spending scandals continued in the embattled House of Representatives on Thursday, with two politicians calling for the disbanding of the Household Affairs Committee headed by Speaker Marzuki Alie.

Ahmad Yani, from the United Development Party (PPP), said the individual House commissions needed to assume control of the matters currently being handled by the controversial committee, known as BURT DPR.

BURT and the House secretariat general both oversee construction and upgrade projects, among other things, in the parliamentary complex.

"It is unclear what BURT is actually doing," Ahmad said, adding that the committee's activities had become even more obscure since Marzuki became chairman.

The PPP is aligned to Marzuki's Democratic Party, headed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Ahmad said whenever Marzuki was criticized he hit out at his opponents in the mass media. "Marzuki Alie, he sees ants at the edge of the island, but pretends not to see an elephant in front of him," he said.

Martin Hutabarat, from the opposition Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) Party, agreed the committee should be scrapped and said Marzuki was damaging the image of the House. Marzuki, he said, was incapable of controlling the committee.

The House Honor Council (BK) on Monday started to probe the Rp 20 billion ($2.2 million) renovation of a new meeting room, intended for use by the House Budget Committee. "The BK has the authority to find out what really happened in this process," Deputy Speaker Pramono Anung said.

Pramono, from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said he had already received the full report for the renovation project from the secretariat general. He added that there were two letters from the Budget Committee asking for a new, "representative" meeting room.

He said that in one of the transcript recordings of meetings between the secretariat general and members of the Budget Committee, there were specific demands for the room's equipment made by the committee. However, he declined to elaborate, saying that the BK was still investigating the case.

Pramono admitted that the Budget Committee was among the most active bodies in the legislature. He said it often conducts long meetings late into the night, but this did not mean it could make excessive demands.

A source within the BK, who wished to remain anonymous, said there were at least four members of the Budget Committee who had made demands for the renovation. The Honor Council will soon question them, the source added.

Sumirat, the head of the maintenance, building and installation bureau of the secretariat general, said the specifications had been approved by Budget Committee chairman Melchias Markus Mekeng, from the Golkar Party.

Melchias denied he had anything to do with the decision. "His statements are getting nonsensical as time goes on," Melchias said of Sumirat. He said he had nothing to do with the choice of the 83 executive chairs, which cost Rp 24 million each and were imported from Germany.

Melchias said: "Do you think we have nothing to do, so that we make demands like this, for chairs costing Rp 24 million and made in Germany?" He added that he was in full support of the BK investigation into the case and in favor of full public disclosure.

"He [the secretary general] knows about the standards, he is the one holding the budget, he is the one making the purchase. Why is it that it is us that are blamed?" he said.

He admitted that the committee had asked for a new meeting room but added that it had not been up to politicians to determine the specifications of the room's design.

Deputy Speaker Anis Matta said that there was a need for a revision of the law on legislative bodies to remove the overlap in positions; for example, at present, the House speaker is also the chairman of the BURT.

"The House speaker is very busy; today he is in Africa. Therefore, in many of the processes, the chairman does not always have... the details," Anis said.

Anis, from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), aired his support for the BK investigation, adding that the committee should also investigate other projects of the secretariat general.

He also said that in theory, the details of the budget for projects should be known to the secretariat general and the BURT, as well as the user, in this case the Budget Committee.