Lack of trasnparancy at House opens door for graft<\/p>\n
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Closing budget talks in the House of Representatives to the
\npublic enables lawmakers to engage in corruption, it was
\nconcluded at a discussion held following reports of the alleged
\n\"sale\" of government relief funds.<\/p>\n
Other things that facilitate corruption is the House's
\npowerful authority in determining budget figures as well as the
\nbureaucracy within the House, discussion participants said on
\nFriday.<\/p>\n
Legislature watchdog Formappi secretary-general Sebastian
\nSalang said the three conditions were designed in such a way that
\nthey allowed corruption and collusion to thrive at the
\nlegislature.<\/p>\n
\"One is the fact that the House indeed has the biggest voice
\nto determine the state budget. Then comes the exclusivity of the
\ntalks, which are closed to the public, thus enabling anyone,
\nincluding brokers who have links to House members, to trade the
\ninformation,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Also, he added, bureaucracy within the House had forced local
\nofficials to pay fees to legislators to speed up deliberations
\nand disbursements of funds for their regions.<\/p>\n
\"With the authority to propose fund amounts and to revise
\ngovernment proposals, there is room for any House member to
\npromise a specific budget amount to local officials and get a
\npercentage,\" Sebastian argued.<\/p>\n
The time-worn practice of House members promising a specified
\nbudget amount to local officials for a percentage of the amount
\nmet a small, but promising obstacle when one legislator publicly
\nrevealed last week a document containing the names of lawmakers
\nand amounts of relief funds, along with names of the areas they
\nwere allegedly \"coordinating\".<\/p>\n
And it is not only the public that is shut out of budgetary
\nmeetings. Some legislators are too, especially those who are not
\nmembers of the budgetary commission.<\/p>\n
The commission, along with the Ministry of Finance,
\ndeliberates the state budget with the authority to approve,
\ndisapprove, revise and propose new figures.<\/p>\n
Legislator Zainul Majdi, who was among those attending the
\ndiscussion, also bemoaned the fact that the public was barred
\nfrom state budget deliberations.<\/p>\n
\"Access to non-budgetary commission members is limited, and
\nthis, I feel, is kind of designed to give just a few the
\nprivilege of knowing about budget issues,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Acknowledging the situation, budgetary commission member
\nTamsil Linrung said he once experienced the closed-door policy,
\nalthough from the government's side.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, he said, the practice of selling funds had been
\naround for a long time but was difficult to prove due to lack of
\nhard evidence.<\/p>\n
\"We can sense it but can't prove it. That's why we established
\na special verification team within the budgetary commission that
\ndouble checks and verifies any budget proposals from the
\ngovernment,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Zainul, who is a House disciplinary committee member, said the
\ncommittee was seriously investigating the corruption allegations,
\nadding that involving legal authorities, such as the police or
\nthe Corruption Eradication Commission, was feasible.<\/p>\n
Concerning one relief fund case involving some Rp 1.97
\ntrillion (US$191.26 million), Tamsil said there had been no money
\ndisbursed to date and that the committee had in fact returned the
\nproposal to the government for revision.<\/p>",
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