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ntigraft watchdog Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) claims to have found in its survey that political parties finance their activities by illegally collecting funds through their politicians at the House of Representatives.

Throughout 2012, ICW conducted research on the financial reports of nine political parties: the Democratic Party, Golkar Party, Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), United Development Party (PPP), National Awakening Party (PKB), National Mandate Party (PAN), Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and the People's Conscience (Hanura) Party.

In the survey, ICW researchers interviewed treasurers of the political parties on the central executive boards in Jakarta, South Sulawesi, Central Java and Yogyakarta.

From the interviews, and analysis of the parties' bookkeeping, the ICW found that the biggest source of revenue for political parties came from the misappropriation of public funds.

Political parties misappropriate public funds through their members in the House or city legislative councils, the research claims.

The ICW also discovered that party members often reportedly abused their positions to influence budget allocations, policy creation and in the appointment of public officials in particular ministries or institutions to help them obtain
illicit funds.

Abdullah Dahlan, an ICW researcher, said political parties attempted to get strategic positions for their members in the House and ministries so that it would be easier for them to source public funds to fill their pockets.

'Political parties appoint their members to hold certain positions in the House and ministries. These members then embezzle funds to provide funding for their parties,' Abdullah said.

Abdullah mentioned a case in 2004 in which a whistle-blower said that the budget for Bank Indonesia's junior deputy governor election was misappropriated from a House budgetary committee allocation to pay for the campaign of a presidential candidate.

'Cases like this happen because political parties have set a target for how much each member working in a ministry or the legislature must contribute,' Abdullah said.

'Every individual member of the House budgetary committee has a certain amount of money that he or she has to give to his or her party. These people are the parties' money collectors,' Abdullah said.

In its research, the ICW also found that parties collect money by giving business concessions to corporations through their fringe organizations and accepting donations that exceed the maximum amount permitted by the General Elections Commission (KPU).

Another ICW researcher, Ade Irawan, said political parties often collected funds illegally from improper sources because Law No. 8/2008 did not specify punishment for parties that do so.

'The law regulates funding, but it does not specify the punishment political parties face if they violate the regulations. Usually, only party members are punished, while the parties remain untouched,' Ade said.

The ICW proposed that there should be harsh punishment for individual politicians.

'Political parties that violate the rule on fund collection should receive administrative punishment. They should not be allowed to participate in the elections,' Ade added.

Golkar deputy secretary-general Nurul Arifin said that the ICW findings did not reflect the reality.

'I hope the ICW isn't generalizing in regard to the 560 lawmakers. I personally have never earned illegal money from the House, thus ICW's findings don't apply to me. We must know that there are still many politicians who strive for their ideals.' (ogi)