The fact that 14 official cars for councilors of the 2004-2009 Malang Legislative Council have not yet been returned to the regency administration has incited criticism from the public.
Intrans Institute, an NGO that evaluates public policy, considers the behavior as corrupt and irresponsible.
"Apart from that, we have also seen that the regency administration authorities have shown no seriousness in dealing with this matter, especially as withdrawing the cars is not a difficult task," institute executive director Luthfi J. Kurniawan said here Sunday.
He said that such a lack of seriousness might have something to do with the upcoming regent and deputy regent election next year.
Both the current regent and deputy regent, he said, had an interest in allowing former councilors to "keep" the cars.
"Such a move will give the regents a higher bargaining position with leaders of political parties. They need votes for their re-election and it is political parties that have those votes," Luthfi continued.
Compared to the regency's 2010 budget worth Rp 1.4 trillion, he went on, the value of the recent models of the 14 Toyota Kijang LGX vehicles was very little.
Yet, he said, it was urgent to handle the case proportionally for the sake of accountability and to ensure that residents could trust the administration.
So far, he said, the list of the regency's assets had never been transparently exposed to the public.
This would mean the balance of payments sheet will not be transparent.
"Unlisted assets will also influence the regency's power to mobilize its economy," Luthfi said.
He added the case could be a starting point for the administration apparatus to trace unlisted assets to create the level of accountability demanded by the public.
Separately, Malang Corruption Watch (MCW) coordinator Zia Ulhaq said that his organization planned to report the case of the 14 former councilors' official cars to the police.
Zia said there was an indication of political conspiracy in the case, especially because all former councilors were obliged to return their official cars by August 30 at the latest.
"They must have returned the cars as they no longer serve as councilors," he told reporters.
Thanks to the 14 unreturned cars, 46 official cars for the new councilors of the 2009-2014 term in office have not yet been issued.
Malang Asset and Finance Management Agency (DPPKA) head Williem Petrus Salamena previously said that his office would never release the cars unless until all cars formerly used by the 2004-2009 councilors were returned to the equipment division.
Williem said there were currently 30 cars to be distributed to newly sworn in councilors.
The regency legislative council's secretary previously proposed purchasing the 14 cars from the DPPKA.
Former council speaker Suhadi, who also proposed buying his former official car, said that it would be better for the regency administration to sell the cars to the former councilors as it would avoid the administration bearing the burden of maintenance expenses.
"But we still have to wait for the regent's approval," Suhadi said.
Regent Sujud Pribadi has previously called on the community to put the state's interest over individual interests.
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