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Simply to inaugurate 692 new national and regional legislators on Oct. 1, taxpayers may have to shell out almost Rp 35 billion, or more than Rp 50 million per elected official.

Worse, three different government institutions have separate allocations for the event, leading to corruption concerns.

“There is indication of double budgeting as well as excessive budgeting,” Roy Salam, a researcher at the Indonesia Budget Center, said on Sunday.

He pointed out that the General Elections Commission (KPU), the House of Representatives (DPR) and the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) all had allocations for the same event.

The House has budgeted Rp 28.5 billion ($2.8 million) for the event. The bulk of this, or Rp 28.2 billion, would go to bringing most of the 560 new lawmakers to the capital. Another Rp 138 million was allocated for security for the event, Rp 112.5 million for ushers and Rp 56.2 million for religious leaders who would swear in the legislators.

The DPD has also allocated Rp 5.6 billion for the inauguration, but has not released a breakdown.

The KPU has set aside Rp 1.2 billion, Rp 815.3 million of which would be used for “honoraria,” though no further details were given on what that entails. Another Rp 237 million was allotted to compiling data on new legislative members, while goods and services required for the event were budgeted Rp 147.6 million.

Roy said the lack of details on each spending item could lead to irregularities.

“If you divided the amount KPU will spent for inauguration, it means the budget is Rp 2.14 million for each DPR member,” Roy said. “That’s five times the school operational aid fund.”

Syamsul Bahri, a KPU member, said on Sunday a big chunk of its budget would go to transporting new members to Jakarta — something already covered under the House’s allocation. “The biggest cost is flying them here,” he said. “Other expenditures may be used on meetings, orientation and other things.”

Syamsul said that he didn’t know the House also had a budget for the inauguration. “It shouldn’t be double budgeted.” The commission is working hand in hand with the House and other institutions to prepare for the inauguration, he said.

“It’s our role to allocate the budget for the inauguration,” he said. “The DPR has its own budget for after the inauguration.”

Roy said the unclear budgets had raised suspicion that there may be excesses. “Each institution shouldn’t have its own budget, as this will only lead to overspending,” he said.

Adnan Topan Husodo of Indonesian Corruption Watch said on Sunday that double budgeting greatly increased the potential for corruption.

“Double budgeting is easy to manipulate, especially if the institutions do not fully reveal spending details,” he said.

Adnan said if it was related to the inauguration, the House should let the KPU handle it.

“It is the task of the KPU to conduct the inauguration, not the DPR or DPD,” he said.