The antigraft body warned the House of Representatives of its plan to award golden rings to outgoing legislators, saying the rings could be a gratuity.

Referring to the 2002 anticorruption law, the deputy chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), M. Jasin, stressed the planned awarding of golden rings for outgoing legislators and golden badges for the incoming ones could be deemed as gratuities, and public officials, including lawmakers, were required to report their wealth before and after they took office.

“Public officials, including lawmakers, must report their wealth to the wealth report division [LHKPN] at the KPK.”

Article 12 (b) of the 2001 Anticorruption Law stipulates all kind of gifts and facilities given to public officials are considered as gratuity.

The same article also stipulates that a public official who had received gratuity but did not report it to the commission within 30 days after the acceptance, faced up to 20 years imprisonment.

According to Jasin, the law does not stipulate the minimal value of the gifts to be considered as gratuity.

The Secretariat General of the House of Representatives confirmed Wednesday it had allocated Rp 2 billion (US$200,000) to procure golden rings, each at 10 grams, to be awarded as farewell gifts to 550 outgoing legislators and another Rp 3 billion to procure golden badges as welcoming gift for the incoming 560 legislators. Each legislator is to receive two golden badges.

The House’s secretary general, Nining Indra Saleh, defended the planned awards, which she said had been part of the 2009 state budget.

She called the golden rings souvenirs, instead of gifts.

The planned awarding of golden rings and badges sparked opposition from House factions and legislators to prevent it from further tarnishing the House’s image.

Chairman of the Prosperity and Justice Party (PKS) Mahfudz Sidiq said the PKS had rejected the rings.

“We prefer placards to golden rings. Placard is much cheaper but still has its form as a souvenir.”

Fahri Hamzah, a member of the House’s law commission, said the House should drop the souvenirs as well as the planned pension benefits for outgoing legislators and instead reward civil servants who had dedicated their life to serving legislators.

“The House leadership has often been too creative, which leads to errors, and they have declined to unveil its accountability to the public.”

Gayus Lumbuun of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) denounced the public complaint on the golden rings as naive.

“The awarding of farewell rings has been a tradition for years. Other state institutions also do the same.

“The rings are to be granted as a reward for our five-year dedication to the people and the nation in the parliament.”

He disagreed with Jasin, saying the rings would not be a gratuity as the recipients would no longer be public officials at the time they would receive the souvenirs.

“They will have left and mostly entered their retirement age by then.

“However, if this golden ring issue has become a negative opinion among the public, we don’t mind if they change them to cheaper tokens, like ordinary rings or certificates.”

Trimedya Pandjaitan, chairman of the House’s Commission III on law and human rights, said he would be fine if the planned awarding of rings and badges was dropped.

“This is my second term. I got one when I finished my first term, so it is no problem if the plan is dropped.”

The House has been under fire for its poor performance in doing its legislative tasks and for the jailing of several legislators who were found guilty of taking bribes. (bbs)

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