Councillor queries construction of governor's residence

Rusman, Samarinda

A councillor lashed out on Monday at the ongoing construction of the official residence of the East Kalimantan governor, saying that the decision to go ahead with it had bypassed the East Kalimantan legislative council.

Rikmo Kuswanto, a councillor and a member of the budget committee of the provincial legislative council, also regretted that the construction had proceeded without approval from the provincial legislative council.

"The old official residence has already been demolished, while, at the same time, we were never notified about the budget of the building construction. We regret it. The executive should have proposed the budget to the council and it had to be approved by us before they proceeded further with construction of the new building," said Rikmo.

He also questioned the staggering amount of money that was poured into construction of the building, totaling Rp 41 billion (US$ 4.3 million). The amount was far from normal for the construction of an upmarket house in the province, which normally stands at Rp 3 billion (US$ 315,789); thus there were suspicions that the project was marked up.

Rikmo went on that the construction of the house should have been approved by the legislative council.

"There should have been a transparent budget, because the building will be a state asset and its construction is using public money," said Rikmo.

Construction of the building will be carried out by PT Total Bangun Persada, which presented the design of the building to the East Kalimantan government on May 22 in Jakarta. The presentation was attended by East Kalimantan provincial administration secretary Syaiful Teteng.

Rikmo suggested that, in order to avoid controversy, the provincial administration had to explain properly the construction and the budget for it to the provincial legislative council.

"We agree that the house had either to be renovated or demolished and then replaced by a new one, but the executive has to be transparent and follow the procedures in this matter," he said.

Separately, Syaiful said that the provincial government accepted the criticism. He admitted that the government had prepared a draft budget for the construction, but it had yet to present it to the council.

He added that the government was ready to present the final draft to the provincial administration in a week's time.

Residence Draft Budget ============================================================= 1. Feasibility Study Rp 108.6 million 2. Building Demolition Rp 465.5 million 3. Building Construction Rp 8.6 billion 4. Water and Electricity

Installation Works Rp 5.4 billion 5. Architectural Works Rp 15.6 billion 6. Ornamental Works Rp 949.6 million 7. Landscape Works Rp 2.6 billion 8. Interior and Furniture Rp 2.5 billion 9. Furniture Modification Rp 822.6 million 10. Tax (10 percent) Rp 3.9 billion ======================================================= Total Rp 41 billion

Source: East Kalimantan provincial administration