40 officials off to Singapore

Multa Fidrus, Tangerang

Forty Tangerang Regency administration officials will spend their weekend in Singapore and it will all be paid for with the taxpayers' money after they engage in a two-day "comparative study" on Batam island, Riau province.

The study apparently will be extremely scrutinized as the large group is comprised of 26 district chiefs and 14 officials at the regency administration in Tigaraksa.

"The trip to Singapore will only take Rp 200 million (US$23,530) from the regency annual budget. Besides, it's only a vacation after our working visit to Batam," Mahfud Rosyad, who is in charge of the trip, said on Tuesday.

According to Mahfud, the trip's main purpose was to see how the Batam municipality had successfully managed the administration in its districts, as stipulated by Law No. 22/1999 on Regional Autonomy.

"Most district heads in Tangerang regency still refer to Law No. 5/1974 in the management of the district administration," he said.

The trip, however, was opposed by the regency councillors.

Chairman of the Justice Party, (now the Prosperous Justice Party) faction, Anugrah, said that such a comparative study "would only waste the people's money". He argued that such a trip with so many people would bring about no results, just like previous trips before it.

"I strongly opposed the trip. Law No. 5/1974 is no longer used by anyone because it has been replaced with the regional autonomy law," he said.

Anugrah also accused the officials of "lying" when they state that they would only use Rp 200 million of the budget to finance their trip.