House escalates row with KPK over budget talks

The House of Representatives has escalated its row with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) over whether the latter could question the legislative body’s budget committee leaders as witnesses in a corruption case.

House Speaker Marzuki Alie on Saturday suggested that the KPK postpone the questioning of the budget committee leaders, pending the completion of the 2012 state budget deliberation.

Marzuki said that the budget committee was tasked with deliberating the use of state funds that amounted to Rp 1,300 trillion (US$148.2 billion), while the graft probe involved only a “few billions of rupiah”.

“Please suspend [the questioning]. We need to look for a shared understanding [on the issue] so that this row won’t disadvantage the people,” he said, adding that the suspension was needed to let the budget committee work on the budget deliberations, which should be completed by the end of this month.

The House and the antigraft body have again been embroiled in a dispute over what appears to be the House’s long resentment over the KPK’s move to take on corruption involving House members.

The KPK insisted on questioning the budget committee leaders, who approved a graft-ridden construction project worth Rp 500 billion proposed by the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry. The agency has named three suspects in the case, including businesswoman Dhanawati and ministry official Dadong Irbarelawan, who claimed that they paid the so-called “commitment fees” — about 10 percent of the project value — to the lawmakers to secure their approval for the project.

The four committee leaders are Tamsil Linrung of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Olly Dondokambey of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Melchias Mekeng of the Golkar Party and Mirwan Amir of the Democratic Party. The House slammed the KPK’s move to question the four lawmakers, which they said could be seen as an attempt by the anticorruption body to meddle with the House’s constitutional tasks.

The budget committee previously threatened to suspend the 2012 state budget deliberation in protest at the move, but the KPK insisted that the probe must go on.

The House leadership has invited the KPK for a meeting to resolve the stand-off on Monday, this has been accepted by the latter after it was agreed that the budget committee leaders would not be present at the meeting.

The committee has softened its stance and is now deliberating the budget bill in Bogor, West Java, but the House leadership seems to be wary that the KPK probe could still disrupt the deliberation process.

House Deputy Speaker Anis Matta concurred with Marzuki, saying that there should no more questioning after Tamsil and Olly answered the KPK summons on Monday. The KPK, he said, must respect the House’s work as the budget deliberation is crucial for the state.

None of the KPK leaders was available to comment on Marzuki’s statement on Saturday. The Jakarta Post also failed to contact its spokesman, Johan Budi. His phone was inactive when the Post tried to call him.