Lawmakers responsible for Rp 419m in state losses: Audit<\/p>\n
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
A Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) report on the House of
\nRepresentatives has revealed that legislators left hundreds of
\nmillions of rupiah worth of unpaid electric and telephone bills,
\nand it has forced the House to use re-allocated budget money to
\npay them off.<\/p>\n
The report, presented to the House on Tuesday, also contains a
\nstatement that former legislators took away state property from
\ntheir official residence after not getting re-elected, causing a
\nstate losses of at least Rp 419 million (about US$41,900).<\/p>\n
The audit also shows that the state could lose as much as Rp
\n839.16 million if it fails to collect the debts from the
\nlegislators dwelling in the House's Kalibata housing complex in
\nSouth Jakarta in the years 2004 and 2005.<\/p>\n
The total arrears consist of Rp 474.94 million in electricity
\nbills for 2004, Rp 136.01 million in telephone bills just for
\nDecember 2004, Rp 89.95 million and Rp 138.26 million in
\nelectricity and telephone bills, respectively, for January to
\nJune of this year.<\/p>\n
The report says the arrears for use in 2004, however, have
\nbeen cleared after the House secretary-general took out unspent
\nfunds from another area of the 2004 budget to cover the debts.<\/p>\n
Legislators in the 1999-2004 period each received Rp 1.75
\nmillion for utility bill allowances every month. Legislators in
\nthe current period receive Rp 2 million for their utilities.<\/p>\n
The current members of the House have, however, proposed a
\nraise of up to Rp 5.5 million for utility bill allowances in the
\n2006 budget.<\/p>\n
The House secretary-general Faisal Djamal confirmed that a
\nportion of the budget from unspent allocations had been spent to
\npay the debts.<\/p>\n
\"The arrears were caused by legislators delaying the payment
\neven after we reminded them. They kept on delaying, but we
\narranged with PT Telkom and PT PLN not to cut off the
\nconnections, because it would've been inconvenient for
\nlegislators to have such disconnections,\" he told The Jakarta
\nPost on Friday.<\/p>\n
Telkom is the state-controlled telecommunications firm, while
\nPLN is the state power firm.<\/p>\n
In some cases, Faisal said, the arrears had also been caused
\nby use of utilities connections during a transition period
\nbetween the old and new legislators using the houses.<\/p>\n
However, one legislator questioned the arrears and called them
\nsuspicious. \"I suspect there has been a conspiracy between the
\nsecretariat general, PLN and Telkom to fake the arrears, and then
\nsplit the payment money between them,\" he alleged.<\/p>\n
Based on his experience so far this year, he said it was
\ndifficult to confirm the truth of the bills due to the odd,
\nmassive figures appearing in the bills.<\/p>\n
Suryama M. Sastra from the House Ways and Means committee said
\nhe was proposing that such electricity and telephone allowances
\nbe treated as reimbursements.<\/p>\n
\"So, the House pays based exactly on the amount of the bills,
\nso that legislators don't instead use the monthly allowance on
\nother expenses,\" said the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS)
\nlegislator.<\/p>\n
On housing inventories, the BPK report asserts that many of
\nappliances and pieces of furniture remained unaccounted for after
\nthe five-yearly auction in the transition period in late 2004.<\/p>\n
It was caused by an unorganized system of recording the
\ninventories, the report concluded.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/lawmakers-responsible-for-rp-419m-in-state-losses-audit-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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