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Pius Lustrilanang, who as deputy chairman of the House of Representatives’ Household Affairs Committee is in the hot seat over the controversial meeting-room mess, said the entire legislature should be held accountable.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) lawmaker said many people had blamed him because his signature was on the official letter approving the Rp 20 billion ($2.2 million) renovation of the Budget Committee meeting room.

However, he said his signature was a mere formality resulting from his position as the leader of the meeting group that decided on the project. The actual decision, he said, was made by the Household Affairs Committee (BURT), which is composed of representatives from all the parties in the House.

“There is no single person in the House able to make an individual decision, because every decision is made collectively [by factions],” Pius said.

“The culture at the House, a culture of turning a blind eye and shifting blame, must be banished,” he added. “The effort to find a scapegoat is a collective decision.”

The House has been under intense public scrutiny over the past few weeks after several plans for costly projects came to light. These include the meeting room renovation, the printing of about 18,000 calendars for Rp 1.3 billion and a planned restroom renovation with a budget of Rp 2 billion.

But Pius said the public should know that budget approvals go through a long process that starts with the BURT and the House Secretariat, continues to the Budget Committee and finally goes to a House plenary meeting.

Besides, he said, the BURT never specifically discussed the Budget Committee’s renovation project in detail. The budget was approved in a lump sum under the reallocation of funds from the equally controversial House building project.

When the Rp 1.13 trillion new tower was canceled after massive protests, the Rp 800 billion allocated to it for last year was returned to the government. But Pius explained that some of the funds were given back to the House for other needs.

Initially, he said, the House Secretariat had proposed that Rp 238.4 billion be allocated back to the House, but he said the BURT wanted a lower figure.

So the House Secretariat came out with a proposal for Rp 201.3 billion, but again the BURT asked for a further trim. A final figure of Rp 193.9 billion was agreed upon on July 22.

Pius said these budget savings were ignored by the Budget Committee, which decided that Rp 218 billion would go back to the House.

In addition to the meeting room renovation, the money was allocated to buy high-speed photocopiers and Toyota Camrys and to develop a futsal field, for a combined total cost of Rp 6.49 billion.

House Speaker Marzuki Alie said he agreed with Pius that everyone who attended the meeting to push for the budget should be responsible for the mess, including those from the House Secretariat.

However, he did not agree that the plenary session should be held accountable.

“The plenary session was only for the final deliberation, because [the consideration] had already been done by the committee,” he said.

The House Ethics Council, meanwhile, has weighed in on the issue with a recommendation to replace all of the expensive imported items responsible for the inflated budgets with locally produced items.

“We can save a lot that way,” said Muhammad Prakosa, the council’s chairman. “It’s a better solution than halting the projects altogether because we need those [renovations].”

Additional reporting by Ezra Sihite