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Expensive Upgrades of Legislators’ Jakarta Homes Come Under Question
Armando Siahaan& Anita Rachman | May 25, 2010

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hjitno
1:01pm May 29, 2010

This is the problem when the thieves call themselves lawmakers... They do not really care about the people they represent, they just care about themselves..sack them all.

peterR
7:00am May 25, 2010

And where is the Presidents voice with all this going on right under his nose?

The government here would be better described as Ali Baba and his hundreds of thieves.

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The huge budget allocation for renovation work to the official homes of legislators in the House of Representatives’ residential complex in South Jakarta reeks of a massive corruption scandal and is marred with procedural violations, a budgetary watchdog said on Monday.

Uchok Sky Khadafi, from the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), said that under the project, which involves renovating the official residences of 495 legislators in Kalibata, South Jakarta, a whopping Rp 900 million ($97,200) on average — the cost of purchasing a lavish home — would effectively be spent from the state budget just to renovate one of the legislators’ residences.

“Renovation does not mean the total reconstruction of a house,” Uchok said.

“Rp 900 million is so expensive. You could get a whole new house for that,” he added.

Ucok said the renovations required a maximum of Rp 247 billion but that the budget had been inflated to Rp 445 billion, a markup of Rp 198 million.

“Rp 155 billion was approved in the 2009 state budget and Rp 290 billion in the 2010 budget,” he said.

Fitra and the Indonesian Budget Center last week said that Rp 90 billion alone was being spent on renting temporary accommodations for the legislators while their official residences were being primped.

But Fitra said on Monday that they have discovered the total allocation was Rp 200 billion higher, based on the DIPA, a document issued by the House that details its authorized spending.

Ucok added that all this was in addition to the budget allocation for the purchase of new furniture for the homes. He said that Rp 11.4 billion had been allocated separately in the 2009 state budget for new furniture.

“That means Rp 21 million worth of furnishings for each home. Why? This shows that the lawmakers, who originate from within the masses to represent the poor, have become rich lawmakers who are now ignorant of the poor,” he said, adding that old furniture should be considered.

Fitra, Uchok said, also questioned the whereabouts of materials torn down during renovations, adding that it was estimated the country could receive an additional income of almost Rp 5.8 billion from the sale of the old materials, based on the estimated value of the old materials in the market.

Fitra estimated that the country could recover Rp 3.9 billion from the sale of the old doors, Rp 890 million from windows and Rp 990 million from the rubble.

Uchok said Fitra would report the issue to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and request the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) to audit the project.

Uchok also called on the House to be more open regarding the project, as access to financial statements have been difficult.

Harry Azhar Azis, chairman of the House Budget Committee, said: “If Fitra has all the evidence, please go to the KPK and report the House on this.”