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House building plan draws criticism
The House of Represen-tatives’ plan to construct a new building estimated to cost Rp 1
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he House of Represen-tatives’ plan to construct a new building estimated to cost Rp 1.8 trillion (US$200 million) may undermine public trust in the House, a budget watchdog said.
Researcher from the Indonesia Budget Center (IBC), Roy Salam, said Sunday that the House should explain the need to the public before putting it into the budget plan.
The House argued that the old building, Nusantara 1, leaned over by 7 degrees.
“The public need to know whether the current building really has a 7 degree inclination,” he told The Jakarta Post.
He claimed that the reason was irrational because he saw the building in discussion was still standing relatively upright compared to the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy. Latest data said it leaned by 3.99 degrees to the southeast.
“If the building really leans by 7 degrees, it should have been shattered into pieces now,” he said. “We may never know who examined it. We can’t confirm whether the data is from the Public Works Ministry as the House claims.”
He said that the House previously had proposed Rp 35 billion in 2009 to renovate the Nusantara 1 building, so he questioned why a building which had been renovated every year would need an Rp 1.8 trillion replacement budget.
“If the House can’t justify their project with reasons, it may lose public trust,” he said
According to the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) audit result in 2009, he said, the parliament had lost tens of billions of rupiah in assets without any clear explanations.
“Many of the House projects provided no accountability,” said Roy.
The House has proposed to the Finance Department Rp 250 billion to make a grand design and to start construction of the new building in 2010. The Rp 1.8 trillion building is planned to be completed in 2012.
The House claimed it needed a new building because the current 24-story building was overloaded. The House currently has 560 legislators and each of them has, at least, an expert staffer and a personal
secretary.
Chairman of the House Budget Committee Harry Azhar Aziz said that the current building had never been renovated since it was built in 1987. He said the Public Works Ministry had based its needs assessment upon the level of damage to the current building.
“The new building will be for the legislators and the current building will be for their expert staffers and meeting rooms,” he said.
He confirmed that the current building needed renovation for the sake of legislator’s safety and working comfort. “Some ministers also complained to me that the House should have a proper waiting room, so the current building will be set up as the ministers’ requested after the new building is completed,” he said.
Harry said that the new building would be architecturally designed based on the letter “U” to symbolize aspirations for openness, given the letter’s shape as an open curve.
“This symbolizes that as legislators we should open our door for any aspirations from the people we struggle for,” he said.
Previously, the lawmakers’ have also been under fire for their housing project in Kalibata, South Jakarta. The renovation of the state-financed houses for the lawmakers was scheduled to be finished in 2009. But tardy completion has cost the state budget an additional Rp 7.6 billion a month to pay for rental allowance of Rp 15 million a month per lawmaker. (rdf)
