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Jakarta. House leaders are distancing themselves from the reported luxurious facilities the controversial new House of Representatives office building will have, but maintained on Thursday that the project would go forward.

News that the Rp 1.6 trillion ($177.6 million) office building would include a special floor for recreation with a swimming pool and a health spa had sparked outrage among the public, and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said on Thursday that it would push for the postponement and re-evaluation of the project.

“We will immediately send a letter to demand a re-evaluation of the plan,” the chairman of the party’s House faction, Tjahjo Kumolo, said on Thursday.

House Speaker Marzuki Alie, from the ruling Democratic Party, said it was too late to postpone the construction, but that the House leadership would cancel the swimming pool to show they were listening to public criticism.

“We must be rational,” Marzuki said, adding that money for the project had already been disbursed and some of it had been paid to project consultants.

While Marzuki was saying the swimming pool would be dropped, one of his deputy speakers, Taufik Kurniawan, from the National Mandate Party (PAN), denied there had ever been any plans for a pool.

“I demand a full investigation into the people who spread the issue of the swimming pool and spa,” he said.

Budi Sukada, the architect heading the team overseeing the design, told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday that the building would have a swimming pool, a gym and health spa facilities, in accordance with city bylaws that “a building occupied by more than 500 people must provide public facilities and social facilities.”

Pius Lustrilanang, a Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) lawmaker and deputy chairman of the Household Affairs Committee, has also said the project cannot be stopped or changed because it had already been covered in the revised state budget.

But the PDI-P’s Tjahjo dismissed this claim as an excuse, and said lawmakers had budgeting rights. “This means we have the authority to cancel any budgeting proposal,” he said.

Marzuki said some political parties were using the controversy to win public support.

He said that the project had been announced to everyone in the legislature, as well as to the leadership of the People Consultative Assembly (MPR) and the Regional Representatives Council (DPD).

“I think someone is just grandstanding,” he said.

Tjahjo, however, said his party had been surprised to hear the House leadership had already approved the plan. “As far as I know, our faction never received a report that included the design for the new building,” he said.