Councillors enraged over late allowances

Rizal Harahap ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Pekanbaru   |  Mon, 03/24/2008 11:46 AM  |  The Archipelago

Members of a regency legislative council in Riau whose allowance payments are three months in arrears have reacted by vandalizing their office equipment and sealing off the legislature secretariat.

One of the councillors, Suprianto, said they sealed off Pelalawan regency legislature's secretariat because they were angry with secretary Ishak M. Arani, who had failed to meet them to discuss the delayed payment of allowances.

"It's unethical. This has occurred many times. Ishak no longer respects us as councillors," Suprianto said.

"If necessary, we will replace him."

According to Suprianto, the delay in payments has negatively affected the councillors' performance.

"We have already planned our work agenda. This has affected our scheduled visits around the area because we have not received our travel allowances," he said.

Another councillor, Lukman, said the allowance was a component of the salary they received no later than the fourth of each month, which consisted of five to eight allowance items, depending on each councillor's position.no problem with salaries, but only payment of allowances," he said.

The councillors' anger subsided after chief councillor Harris intervened. Harris declined to comment on the protest.

A number of councillors believed the delayed payment of allowances was connected to the arrest of regent Azmun Ja'afar by the Corruption Eradication Commission in December last year.

Azmun was allegedly involved in graft and had issued timber licenses to 15 companies. The crimes he allegedly committed between 2001 and 2006 are believed to have incurred losses to the state of up to Rp 1.3 trillion (US$144 million).

The reasons for the delayed payments remain unclear pending clarification from Ishak, who has the most knowledge about the situation. When The Jakarta Post went to Ishak's house in Tangkerang Tengah subdistrict in the provincial capi-tal Pekanbaru, one of his children said he was not home.

According to Andi Yusran, executive director of the Red Institute, an NGO, sealing off the secretariat indicated disapproval of administrative mismanagement. He said the incident was justifiable in the circumstances.

"It would be more inappropriate if the councillors kept quiet. A bad system mustn't be tolerated," he said.

Andi said neither the sec-retariat nor the regency administration should be immediately blamed for the delayed payment of allowances because the central government was often late in disbursing funds for the regency to reimburse the allowances.

"It's not only these councillors who are susceptible to it but also every state agency," he said.

"The delay is not connected to the arrest of the regent. This is a structural problem associated with the central government's policy in distributing funds."

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.