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he House of Representatives’ Ethics Council has indicated that a conspiracy between the House’s Secretariat and Household Affairs Committee (BURT) resulted in a controversial Rp 20 billion renovation project.

Ethics Council chairman M. Prakosa said he would let law enforcers investigate the case.

“The Ethics Council will demand the legislators be suspended should any of them be declared suspects by the Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK],” Prakosa said after a consultative meeting with House Speaker Marzuki Alie, who chairs the BURT.

Meanwhile, Ethics Council member Fahri Hamzah said the council did not recommend the suspension of legislators because no suspects had been declared.

“The Secretariat is the first institution to be held responsible for the project. If an official from the Secretariat is named a suspect, he or she will surely reveal the boss behind the project, which is allegedly marked up,” he said.

He said the procurement of furniture and devices for the project was out of control and had gone beyond the standard procedure. Therefore, the KPK should immediately investigate irregularities in the project.

As an example, Fahri said the House had planned to build an office tower at a cost of Rp 1.8 trillion. Later, the project committee lowered the cost to Rp 840 billion. “How can the price be lowered drastically?” he asked.

In addition, the Ethics Council said the irregularities were a result of poor regulations set out in the 2008 Legislative Bodies Law.

During the consultative meeting, Marzuki said he knew nothing about the renovation project.

The project, which would have renovated an old room into a plush meeting hall for the budget committee, sparked protests from civil society groups as it absorbed Rp 20.3 billion to furnish the room, with imported chairs costing Rp 9 million per unit, imported carpets and a modern sound system. An anti-bugging device worth Rp 7.8 billion was also to be procured.

The Ethics Council ordered partner companies (including the state-owned Pembangunan Perumahan) involved in the project to replace all imported materials in the luxurious room with local products to minimize the total cost to Rp 13 billion.

The procurement of imported equipment and materials was proposed by the House’s Budget Committee and was then discussed at least twice by the BURT and Secretariat with the Finance Ministry.

Relevant committees and the Secretariat have blamed each other over the costly project.

Faction leaders have been reluctant to comment on the luxurious building and declined to blame it on the lawmakers in the BURT and budget committee that approved the project.

Executive director of the Indonesian Parliament Watchdog (Formappi) Sebastian Salang expressed his disappointment with the Ethics Council, which he said had no political courage to impose sanctions on their colleagues implicated in the scandal.

He said the Ethics Council should not hide behind the law but report the scandal to the KPK for further investigation.

“Not only House Speaker Marzuki Alie and other BURT leaders but also BURT members, the budget committee and the Secretariat have to be responsible for the mark-up project ,” he said.

All those in the BURT, budget committee and the Secretariat allegedly involved in the mark-up project had to be brought to justice he said, adding the scandal was evidence of systemic and collective corruption.