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Indonesia's House of Representatives and its general secretariat are pointing fingers at each other after a Rp 20 billion ($2.2 million) upgrade to a meeting room for its Budget Committee, came under public scrutiny.

In the latest controversy to dog the legislature, the House is said to have moved the meeting space of the Budget Committee to a larger room and renovated it at a cost of Rp 20 billion.

The revelation came just days after the House was attacked for a plan to renovate toilets in its complex at a cost of Rp 2 billion.

Tjahjo Kumolo, the head of the House faction of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the decision maker on the new meeting room was the secretariat general, with the plan then approved by the Household Affairs Committee (BURT).

“The matters of constructing a building, renovating toilets and parking areas, those do not fall under the authority of the [House],” he said, adding that he never received a report on the project.

Tjahjo added that such controversy was “very damaging” to the House.

Tamsil Linrung, the deputy chairman of the Budget Committee, admitted that his committee had demanded a larger meeting room, but knew nothing of the details beyond that, including the renovation’s Rp 20 billion tab.

“We did ask to move so that there is a bigger Budget Committee room, with a meeting room and a secretariat, as this year there will be additional experts from the secretariat general,” Tamsil said.

However, Nining Indra Saleh, the House secretary general, said that its budget plans were always communicated to the House’s BURT.

“All policies are discussed, we are only implementing what has been decided by the [House], in this case the BURT,” Nining said.

The budget allotment is also decided in a House plenary session, she added.

Nining said the process for the project was announced on the official Web site of the House and the budget published on the Web site of the Finance Ministry’s directorate general for budgeting.

She said that the renovation was necessary because the old room suffered from poor lighting, bad acoustics, worn flooring and carpeting, and an inadequate sound system.

Tenders, she said, involved a Rp 566 million design project awarded to Gubah Laras, a Rp 234 million contract for supervision won by Jagat Rona Semesta and a Rp 20 billion construction project to state-run Pembangunan Perumahan .

The renovation work involved a change of equipment, furniture, sound system, acoustics, flooring, ceiling, and additional information technology equipment.

She also said that the old room had only a 50-person capacity, while the Budget Committee currently has 85 members.

Journalists catching a glimpse of the new room said that work appeared to be 90 percent complete and that the new meeting room was equipped with three large flat-screen televisions and a door with an electronic lock.

Uchok Sky Khadafi, a coordinator of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), said that the room was not really needed, “as Budget Committee members prefer to conduct their meetings in luxury hotels [rather] than in their own meeting room.”

He called on the House to drop the plan to move the committee’s meeting room, “or the people will have their sense of budget justice disturbed.”