Sutiyoso objects to councillors' foreign trips<\/p>\n
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Governor Sutiyoso revealed on Wednesday that he planned to
\nissue a regulation that would prevent city councillors from
\ntaking from the budgets of city agencies to finance their foreign
\ntrips.<\/p>\n
\"Maybe, we will issue a decree that will prevent them using it
\n(the budgets). We will try it,\" Sutiyoso told reporters at City
\nHall.<\/p>\n
He had said earlier the councillors had forced the agencies to
\nfinance their foreign trips and they could not refuse. \"It's all
\ntheir own arrangement. But the officials could not refuse their
\ndemands,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Separately, City Council deputy chairman Chudlary Syafei
\nHadzami claimed on Wednesday that the councillor's foreign trips
\nwere arranged both by the administration and the council.<\/p>\n
\"It's not true. The trips were made under an agreement between
\nthe administration and the council,\" Chudlary of the United
\nDevelopment Party (PPP) told reporters.<\/p>\n
He said that the trips were useful to broaden the councillors'
\nknowledge, saying that the council would propose budgets for
\nsimilar trips next year.<\/p>\n
Fifteen councillors from City Council Commission D for
\ndevelopment affairs visited Beijing and Seoul in October with
\nfunds from the city sanitation agency.<\/p>\n
Another eight councillors of Commission C for financial and
\nbudgetary affairs visited Bangkok to study taxes with funds from
\nthe city revenue office and will return home this week.<\/p>\n
Nine councillors from Commission A for administrative and
\nlegal affairs visited Morocco and Spain to study sister cities
\nwith funds from the inter-city cooperation office and will also
\nreturn home this week.<\/p>\n
The 2001 city budget allocated Rp 11 billion for councillors'
\nforeign and domestic trips but the general public and non-
\ngovernmental organizations slammed these trips as useless and a
\nwaste of taxpayers money.<\/p>\n
The councillors' foreign trips were apparently merely junkets
\nas had been indicated by a letter from the Indonesian Consulate
\nin Los Angeles last year which stated that the councillors, who
\nplanned to study taxes, did not meet any officials from Los
\nAngeles' tax office.<\/p>\n
In 2000, some 16 councillors from Commission D visited
\nAustralia, Japan and South Africa with funds from city-owned
\ndeveloper PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol.<\/p>\n
Besides taking an allowance from the developer of US$5,000
\neach, the councillors also received Rp 50 million each from the
\ncity budget.<\/p>\n
The Prosecutor's Office investigated the case and declared
\nthree councillors Tarmidi Suhardjo and Tarmidi Edy Suwarno from
\nthe Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and
\nAli Imron from PPP as suspects for taking the allowances without
\njoining the trips.<\/p>\n
Fearing public criticism, the council did not propose a fund
\nfor study trips in the 2002 city budget but increased \"funds for
\nstudies\" in the city agencies.<\/p>\n
Separately activist Azas Tigor Nainggolan said that the trips
\nwere a result of collusion between the councillors and
\nadministration' officials.<\/p>\n
\"The councillors used the funds for pleasure trips, while the
\nofficials needed their projects to be approved by the
\ncouncillors,\" Tigor said on Wednesday.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/sutiyoso-objects-to-councillors-foreign-trips-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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