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espite receiving billions of rupiah from the annual state budget, political parties have ignored requests to disclose their financial reports to the public.

Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said that nine political parties had ignored their first letter requesting that they reveal their spending, and that it was soon send a follow-up letter.

ICW analyst Apung Widadi said on Friday that it would report the political parties to the Central Information Commission (KIP) if they failed to respond within 30 days.

“None of the parties has shown good intentions by responding to the request, showing that political parties still lack transparency, particularly when it comes to the use of taxpayers’ funds,” he said.

Earlier, political parties ignored a KIP summons to fulfill a similar request by Fitra, another NGO.

In its first letter, the ICW demanded that all nine political parties that have House of Representatives seats disclose how they spent the funds they received from the state budget.

Article 15 of the 2008 Freedom of Information Law stipulates that a political party must disclose how it has spent funds from the state. Donations from party members or private companies are not subject to the law.

Apung said that political parties should publish how they spent their money.

“We acknowledge the limitations of the current law. That is OK for now. Let’s see how we can implement the limited law and see how the parties deal with budget transparency as required by the law,” he said.

KIP chairman Ahmad Alamsyah Saragih acknowledged that the law did not carry the power to demand that political parties disclose the management of political parties’ non-state-budget funds.

“The law was made by lawmakers, politicians. You know what I mean,” Ahmad said.

“If they refuse to disclose the amount of funds they received from donators and how they have used it, what can we say?”

The 2009 Government Regulation on Financial Aid for Political Parties stipulates that political
parties that have representatives in the House have the right to receive “annual financial assistance” from the state.

The amount of the annual aid is Rp 102 (1.2 US cents) per vote the party gained in the last general elections.

Given the results of the 2009 polls, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, which won the majority of votes (21.7 million), would receive Rp 2.2 billion per year.

The total annual aid for all of the nine House parties is about Rp 8.68 billion, or about 0.01 percent of the total state budget.

“Political parties are already tarnished with negative stigma because of the many corruption cases involving politicians. They must respect our requests if they want to change that image,” Apung said.

The Golkar Party’s Bambang Soesatyo, United Development Party’s Romahurmuziy and Democratic Party’s Didi Irawadi Syamsuddin did not respond to text messages sent by the The Jakarta Post asking them to comment on the ICW’s request.

Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari said she strongly supported ICW’s move.

“All political parties are supposed to be the leading actors in promoting accountability. Political parties must reform themselves because they supply political leaders to the country,” she said.

Eva added that she did not know about the ICW’s request, but promised to push the party’s executive boards to be transparent in their financial management.

— JP/Bagus BT Saragih