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ouse of Representatives'€™ Deputy Speaker Taufik Kurniawan has been reported to the House ethics council for alleged bribery.

According to ethics council chief Trimedya Panjaitan, a man named Burhanuddin filed a report against Taufik with the council on July 5. The report stated that Taufik, who is also secretary-general of the National Mandate Party (PAN), asked Burhanuddin to pay Rp 2.8 billion (US$280,000) in connection with a particular project.

'€œBurhanuddin stated in his report that he gave the money to Pak Taufik'€™s staffer, Gustri, to obtain approval on a project. However, we are still examining the matter. We need to be careful with complaints such as this, especially as Pak Taufik is the secretary-general of PAN. We are approaching the elections, thus attempts to discredit noted party politicians are likely,'€ Trimedya said on Friday.

He declined, however, to provide details of the project in question.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician only said that the ethics council would summon Burhanuddin as soon as the House resumed after a month'€™s recess starting next week because '€œhe [Burhanuddin] has yet to elaborate on the details of his allegation in the report'€.

Taufik, meanwhile, declined to respond to The Jakarta Post'€™s calls and text messages for clarification.

However, Taufik told online media that he was innocent. '€œI'€™ve never met this Burhanuddin guy. I don'€™t even have a staffer named Gustri. Therefore, I can assure you that it'€™s a false accusation,'€ Taufik said.

He added that as a politician, he was used to bearing the brunt of false statements that abused his name.

'€œI can say that things like this will become more rampant as we approach the election,'€ he said, adding that he would comply with the House ethics council as the allegation was pursued.

According to Trimedya, Burhanuddin was the same person who filed a complaint against convicted lawmaker Wa Ode Nurhayati, also a PAN politician, over alleged corruption surrounding the disbursement of funds from the 2010 Infrastructure Development Acceleration Program (PPID).

Nurhayati, a former member of the House budget committee, was sentenced to six years in prison by the Jakarta Corruption Court last year for accepting Rp 6.25 billion in bribes from three businessmen '€” Fadh El Fouz, Saul Paulus David Nelwan and Abram Noach Mambu '€” to allocate infrastructure development funds to three districts.

She filed an appeal with the Supreme Court following the sentence, but her appeal was rejected.

Nurhayati had previously accused the House leader as well as leaders of the House budget committee of also accepting kickbacks worth more than Rp 1.2 trillion from the Rp 7.7 trillion that was also budgeted for the regional infrastructure adjustment projects.

For example, she named House Speaker Marzuki Alie as being among the leaders that were involved in the graft-ridden project. Nurhayati also accused Marzuki of accepting Rp 300 billion in kickbacks, an accusation that Marzuki denied.

This latest complaint against Taufik has only added to the number of similar reports of alleged bribery among lawmakers.

Earlier this year, Democratic Party lawmakers Supomo and Gondo Radityo Gambiro were accused of accepting illegal kickbacks totaling Rp 1.2 billion to expedite the disbursement of funds to the Cianjur Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD).

Both the lawmakers have denied the accusation, while the House'€™s ethics council is still investigating the matter.

Another House deputy chairman, Priyo Budi Santoso of the Golkar Party, also found himself in hot water after being accused of involvement in a corruption case at the Religious Affairs Ministry. Priyo is said to have embezzled 1 percent of funds for the ministry'€™s laboratory procurement project. He has also denied the allegation.

Last year, State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan was up in arms with lawmakers and proceeded to file complaints against a number of them to the House ethics council for demanding illegal kickbacks from state-owned companies.