A budget watchdog is urging the House of Representatives to scrap its budget for trips abroad.

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) says the trips are a waste of public funds, citing a team of lawmakers who went to Germany and were found by student associations to have traveled with their families and taken time out for shopping.

The Indonesian Student Association of Berlin (PPI) and the German chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama last week ridiculed the lawmakers visiting the German capital, likening them to "country bumpkins" and calling the trip a waste of state funds.

"The Indonesian community there saw them shopping, and this is clearly tourism disguised as duty," said Uchok Sky Khadafi, a Fitra investigation coordinator.

Though the lawmakers said their families' travel expenses were separate from their own, Uchok aired doubts. "Did they all eat separately? Didn't they all go together? Doesn't that mean it all gets paid for by the state?" Uchok said.

If the trip was really for work, he said, the lawmakers should have traveled solo. "How can they say that their families weren't distracting them from their jobs? It would clearly be a distraction," he said.

In addition to the Germany trip, Fitra says lawmakers have visited the United States, Poland, the Czech Republic and South Africa, while others are still in Denmark, among other countries.

The budget allotment this year for House overseas visits is Rp 140.9 billion ($15.3 million), Rp 3.4 billion more than last year's allotment of Rp 137.5 billion, Uchok said.

These trips have been widely criticized after lawmakers in March rejected the government's proposal to bring the budget deficit under control by swiftly raising the price of subsidized fuel.