Councillors to LA despite outcry<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Following controversial trips undertaken by
\ncouncillors to Australia, Japan and South Africa late last year,
\n15 councillors are again to make a one-week overseas visit, this
\ntime to Los Angeles in the United States.<\/p>\n
The chairman of the City Council's Commission C for budgetary
\nand financial affairs, Amarullah Asbah, confirmed on Monday that
\nthe 15 councillors would leave for Los Angeles on Sunday to
\nconduct a comparative study.<\/p>\n
The councillors would study matters related to budgetary and
\nfinancial affairs in Los Angeles, including the levying of
\nentertainment taxes and advertisement taxes, he said.<\/p>\n
Amarullah said the councillors would not be accompanied by
\ncity officials on the LA trip so to avoid accusations that there
\nwas collusion between the councillors and the officials.<\/p>\n
He said that half of the 15 councillors who would visit Los
\nAngeles were members of Commission C while the remainder would be
\ndrawn from other commissions.<\/p>\n
He insisted that councillors who did not join the trip would
\nnot be allowed to claim travel allowances.<\/p>\n
\"I myself will not be going to LA. I visited LA when I was a
\ncouncillor for the 1992-1997 period,\" he said.<\/p>\n
A number of city officials and 16 councillors participated in
\ncontroversial trips to Australia, Japan and South Africa in
\nOctober last year, financed by the 2000 city budget and city-
\nowned developer PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol.<\/p>\n
Three councillors reportedly received travel allowances worth
\nabout Rp 52 million each even though they canceled their travel
\nplans.<\/p>\n
Amarullah claimed the latest trip would be fully financed by
\nthe 2001 city budget, denying that city-owned companies would
\nalso be involved in footing the bill.<\/p>\n
He said the council had allocated Rp 6 billion (US$545,454) to
\nfinance foreign trips by the 85 councillors to various countries
\nthis year.<\/p>\n
\"This year we will only undertake one foreign visit to reduce
\ncosts. Last year, we undertook two foreign visits,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Some parties have speculated that the councillors' foreign
\ntrips are connected with the council's acceptance of Governor
\nSutiyoso's accountability statement on April 30.<\/p>\n
Two week after the speech, a number of councillors reportedly
\ntraveled to some Asian countries, accompanied by their spouses.
\nThey ended their foreign trips with an Umroh (minor pilgrimage)
\nin Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
But Amarullah denied the allegations, saying that the trip to
\nLos Angeles had nothing to do with Sutiyoso's accountability
\nreport.<\/p>\n
\"The trip had been arranged before this. It's got nothing to
\ndo with the council's acceptance of Governor Sutiyoso's
\naccountability statement last month,\" Amarullah, from the Golkar
\nParty, insisted.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the coordinator of the Jakarta Residents Forum
\n(Fakta), Azas Tigor Nainggolan, said he had heard that some
\ncouncillors had gone on hushed-up foreign visits two weeks after
\nthe council accepted Sutiyoso's accountability speech.<\/p>\n
\"The public might suspect that these trips were given as
\nrewards after the council accepted Sutiyoso's speech,\" Azas told
\nThe Jakarta Post on Monday.<\/p>\n
Therefore, he called on council speaker Eddy Waluyo to make
\npublic any foreign trips made by councillors, and whether they
\nwere funded out of the budget or not.<\/p>\n
\"Thus far, Edy never says anything to the public about planned
\nforeign trips by the councillors,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He regretted that the councillors still planned to travel
\nabroad amid the current political and economic crisis.<\/p>\n
\"Although we have enough funds in the budget, they shouldn't
\nbe frittered away on such unnecessary things. We could use the
\nfunds for other purposes, such as for poverty alleviation
\nprograms,\" he said. (jun)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/councillors-to-la-despite-outcry-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}