PDI-P legislators return legislation fees

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 02/21/2008 12:08 PM  |  National

It was a once-in-a-lifetime sight: Legislators carried a trunk and a bag containing a total Rp 3.4 billion (US$369,565) in cash into the House of Representatives, accompanied by four security guards.

Members of the House's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction, led by secretary Ganjar Pranowo, displayed the money, "fees" paid to members to pass legislation, to the gathered press before handing it over to House acting secretary general Nining Indra Saleh on Wednesday.

"We fulfilled our promise to return the legislation fees we have received," Ganjar said.

He said PDI-P lawmakers had received a total of Rp 3.9 billion in legislation fees but some Rp 500 million had been spent "to help disaster victims in some areas."

The PDI-P is the first faction to return the fees to the House's secretary general. Previously, only Yudi Chrisnandi of the Golkar Party had also returned his legislation fee.

The legislation fee is a source of extra income for lawmakers. Each of them receive Rp 5 million when joining a legislative deliberation team. They also receive Rp 1 million each for being present at plenary sessions endorsing legislative products.

"We consider this fee as too naive as legislators receive Rp 1 million for attending a plenary session," said PDI-P legislator Bambang Wuryanto.

He added each lawmaker received a different amount of money depending on which and how many teams they were on. "The largest amount was Rp 39 million, while the smallest was Rp 15 million."

Bambang said the PDI-P needed some time to return the money from its members because it had originally been paid directly to legislators' bank account. "Some of our legislators have to pay in installments to return this money to the faction," he added.

Ganjar said the lawmakers' salaries and allowances were supposed to be regulated. "At the moment, the allowances are based on meetings, which make them difficult to account for."

Bivitri Susanti from Centre for Indonesian Law and Policy Studies (PSHK) said the legislation fee was an irrational budget allocation because deliberating legislation was the main task of lawmakers.

She said it would be better to allocate the money for activities that could increase the quality of legislation produced by the House.

"It would be better if the money was allocated for public consultations to support the bill deliberation process," she said.

Bivitri said lawmakers should have returned their legislation fees to the House's secretary general instead of giving them away to the victims of disasters.

"That could be... hidden campaigns using the state's money," she added. (alf)

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