Council insists city provide expert staff
Council insists city provide expert staff
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
City Council members demanded that Governor Sutiyoso immediately
issue a gubernatorial decree on the provision of expert staff for
the councillors as stipulated in a newly endorsed bylaw on the
councillors' financial status and benefits.
Sayogo Hendrosubroto of the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI-P) faction said on Saturday that the presence of
the staff was of high importance.
"Councillors have to have experts because they must deal with
various issues. Councillors do not have a comprehensive
understanding of all the issues they deal with," Sayogo, who is
also chairman of Commission D on development affairs, told The
Jakarta Post.
Councillor Inggard Joshua of Golkar faction added that the
experts would ease the burden of their work.
The appointment of the experts is regulated in Article 18 of
the bylaw approved on Friday.
According to the article, the experts will be the subordinates
of the council secretary whose duty is to help the five
commissions of the Council.
The five commissions are Commission A on legal and
administrative affairs, Commission B on economic affairs,
Commission C on financial affairs, Commission D on development
affairs, and Commission E on education, health, and people's
welfare.
The bylaw, however, does not specify numbers, qualifications
and salaries of the experts. According to the third paragraph of
Article 18, the details would be stipulated in a gubernatorial
decree.
Currently, councillors are not provided with a secretary or
any staff. If they do have any, councillors have to pay them from
their own salaries.
Meanwhile, each member of the House of Representatives is
provided with one expert and a regular staffer, who is appointed
by respected legislator. Most of the assistants are the
legislators' relatives.
According to Inggard, his faction has hired three expert staff
to help seven Golkar councillors to study various issues and
texts, including thousands of pages of a draft bylaw on the city
budget for 2005 currently being deliberated.
He said the experts with under graduate decrees in law and
finance were paid around Rp 2 million (US$222.22) to Rp 2.5
million per month. "So far, we have paid them from our own
salaries," he said.
Inggard expressed hope that the City Council secretary would
recruit experts in the proper way and with specific
qualifications.
Muhayar Rustamudin of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS)
faction also said that each councillor of his faction hired one
expert, who held a master's degree.
Therefore, he expected the Governor to consider letting each
councillors -- not each commission as stipulated in the bylaw --
to have their own expert staff.
"If the salaries are taken from the city budget, it will
reduce the burden of the councillors, who have to put aside part
of their own salary to pay the experts we have hired," he said.