An NGO campaigning for transparency has called on Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo to block the Golkar Party’s proposal to allocate Rp 8.4 trillion (US$ 907 million) from the state budget for legislators for distribution to their constituencies.
Transparency International Indonesia (TII) chairman Todung Mulya Lubis said Monday that the proposal had no legal basis and could possibly further tarnish the reputation of legislators in the eyes of the public.
“I believe that the new finance minister is still committed to keeping the state budget allocations healthy,” he told reporters at the TII’s office in Jakarta.
Agus last month replaced his predecessor, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who resigned to take a top job at the World Bank after months of political pressure imposed on her by politicians over her role in the controversial Bank Century bailout.
The Finance Ministry is currently still deliberating the 2011 state budget at the House. Agus reiterated Monday his opposition to the much-decried proposal.
“It’s like what I stated in my speech during the plenary session last Monday,” he told reporters.
He previously said that the proposal might violate some regulations, citing the 2003 Law on the State Budget, the 2004 Law on Local Government and the 2004 Law on Financial Balance between Central and Local Governments.
Golkar claimed the funds would be used to respond to constituency requests and to accelerate equal distribution of development projects across the country, particularly in remote and rural areas.
TII secretary-general Teten Masduki however said the aspiration funds would be “discriminatory”, and would further unbalance the already uneven distribution of development projects in underdeveloped provinces compared to more developed ones.
“Less than 10 percent of legislators come from underdeveloped provinces like Maluku and Papua,” he said.
According to TII data, only 10 legislators come from Papua, three from West Papua, four from Maluku, three from North Maluku and 13 from East Nusa Tenggara.
The numbers are far lower than in more developed provinces, such as West Java, which has 91, Central Java with 78, East Java with 87 from and Jakarta with 21.
He said that if the finance minister accepted Golkar’s proposal, he would lose public support because this would indicate that he was easily driven by political interests at the House.
“The funds will only benefit politicians from the ruling parties by helping them to maintain their political basis,” he said.
Chairman of the House Budget Committee and Golkar lawmaker Harry Azhar Aziz clarified that legislators would not be directly involved in development projects funded by the aspiration funds, but rather would only propose projects.
“The development projects would be directly handled by task forces formed by related ministries or local governments, legislators won’t be involved in the project bidding process,” he said.
More political parties joined the criticism against Golkar on Monday about the controversial proposal.
The chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Tjahjo Kumolo, said they did not want to give money to their constituents.
Source: TheJakartaPost
