Jakarta – Indonesia's chief welfare minister claims not to know anything about having resigned from the House of Representatives last year, following revelations that she and another minister from the party of President Joko Widodo are continuing to receive their salaries as legislators.

Puan Maharani, the coordinating minister for human and cultural development, said on Wednesday that it was her party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle, or PDI-P, that was supposed to have taken care of the paperwork for her resignation as a legislator, to which she had been re-elected in the April 2014 elections.

She said it was the party's decision to nominate her as a minister in Joko's cabinet, and hence the party's responsibility to arrange for her leaving the House.

"It was the party that handled it with the chairwoman," Puan said as quoted by Vivanews, referring to PDI-P chief Megawati Soekarnoputri, who is also her mother.

Puan also denied that she was still receiving her salary as a legislator, in addition to her pay and perks as a minister.

That claim, however, goes against publicly available data from the House that show Puan and PDI-P colleague Tjahjo Kumolo, now the minister for home affairs, as never having resigned from the House.

A search of the House's personnel database fails to turn up resignation forms from either Puan or Tjahjo, and no forms from the PDI-P naming their replacements. The paper trail on the two individuals ends with letters from then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono inaugurating them as legislators on Sept. 30 last year, less than a month before they were appointed to Joko's cabinet.

Winantuningtyastiti, the House secretary general, whose office is responsible for personnel matters, confirmed that as long as they were still registered as legislators, Puan and Tjahjo were still drawing a salary from the House. "They get everything, except the allowances that go with certain activities," she said on Wednesday as quoted by Kompas.

House Deputy Speaker Taufik Kurniawan urged the secretary general to resolve the issue, adding the PDI-P should have ensured immediately after they were named to the cabinet that all their paperwork was in order.

Source: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/pdi-p-ministers-spotlight-salary-double-dip/