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Indonesian House Proceeds With Building Plans
Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Armando Siahaan | September 29, 2010

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tony111
7:09pm Sep 29, 2010

Well done...with swimming pool, gym and spa for "health" reasons. I totally agree because most of them are not in the "best health". Will there be a shopping Mall too?

mns_ent
11:03am Sep 29, 2010

Let's send FPI to the House to demonstrate against proceeding to build without the public's consent!

I know FPI will do anything to make sure we're all aligned in the godly manner for the greater good!

... yeah right...

Indonesia is getting sicker by the day, I'm afraid no doctors can help anymore. There are more ridiculous things in the news than things that can be digested by common sense and logic.

Is it the fault of exaggerated journalism, or is it really like that out there?

Who really knows nowadays, it's all jaded, isn't it?

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Jakarta. Ignoring scathing public criticism, the House of Representatives said on Tuesday that it would proceed with construction plans for a new building without holding a public contest to determine the design and without further reviews.

“Only outsiders want us to hold the contest, but insiders have approved the current design,” said House Speaker Marzuki Alie, from the ruling Democratic Party.

Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi) had called for an open competition that would include architects and design companies when the plan for the new building was presented by lawmakers in 2004.

The House, though, never agreed to a contest.

“It is suspicious that the plan was not followed or publicly announced,” said Sebastian Salang, coordinator of Formappi.

Marzuki said the building design had been agreed to before he was elected speaker in 2009, and that the current House membership was responsible only for carrying out the plans it inherited.

“So it’s not true if someone says the current design should not be used just because there was no public contest,” he said. “And we spent billions of rupiah to pay the consultant for the current design.”

Marzuki had earlier announced that the House leadership had agreed to postpone the project to allow for a review. The review would have allowed for cost revisions and changes in design, including for smaller office suites.

Though no changes were ever made to the original plans, the House says reviews have been completed and the project will proceed unaltered.

The project has drawn criticism for its cost and attracted allegations of graft by those who say that not enough time was allowed for evaluation and review in response to public concerns and complaints.

House legislators have refused to bow to public calls to cancel the lavish construction, but did agree to lower the budget for the project from Rp 1.8 trillion ($200 million) to Rp 1.3 trillion.

The new office building will include a swimming pool, gym and spa facilities “for health” reasons.

Marzuki said the House would bring in officials from the ministries of finance and public works to improve technical and budget issues related to the project.

He said last week that the House’s Secretariat General — the body in charge of providing all the administrative support lawmakers require — would be restructured and certain officials within it removed or rotated.

Sebastian, from Formappi, suggested at the time that the shake-up could be related to the controversy over the building.

Construction of the building is expected to begin this year.