Councillors again go on secret foreign trips
Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The city administration admitted on Monday it had financed foreign trips of 32 city councillors for comparative studies, but insisted that the trips were demanded by the councillors.
"They asked us and we had the money. It's unusual but, maybe, in the future, we could improve," financial assistant to the city secretary Makmun Amin told reporters at City Hall.
Makmun said the money was taken from budgets of city agencies for foreign trips.
Fifteen councillors from City Council Commission D for development affairs visited Beijing and South Korea in October. Their trip was financed by the city sanitation agency.
As many as nine councillors from City Council Commission A for administrative affairs visited Morocco and Spain for a comparative study on sister cities and will return home on Tuesday. The trip was financed by the intercity relations office.
Eight councillors from the City Council Commission C for financial and budgetary affairs departed last Friday for Bangkok on a trip funded by the city revenue agency.
Makmun revealed the revenue agency gave the eight councillors between Rp 120 million and Rp 150 million.
"Of course it would not be enough. It was up to them to cover the remaining costs," he said, adding that only one official from the agency accompanied the councillors who would study taxes in Bangkok.
The trips, which were between seven and 10 days in length, were mostly joined by councillors from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) and Golkar Party. The two parties supported the reelection of Sutiyoso in the gubernatorial election in September.
Chairman of Commission D Sayogo Hendrosubroto, rejected rumors on Monday that the councillors had joined a trip to Beijing and South Korea.
"There is no trip. No councillors joined a foreign trip," Sayogo of PDI Perjuangan said.
However, a credible source said that Sayogo and almost all members of Commission D joined the trip.
Due to the foreign trip, meetings to discuss strategic city planning were postponed last Saturday because of the absence of many councillors.
City secretary Moerdiman said there was no budget for the councillors' foreign trips this year.
"There is no budget for trips this year," Moerdiman told reporters.
No money has been allocated in this year's budget for foreign trips after councillors received sharp public criticism for their trips last year. The public criticized their trips last year, saying that such visits were useless and a waste of taxpayers money.
The 2001 city budget allocated Rp 11 billion for foreign trips but it was found that many councillors were just on pleasure trips instead of conducting comparative studies.
In the year of 2000, some 16 councillors of Commission D visited Australia, Japan and South Korea which was financed by city-owned developer PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol.
Besides taking a travel allowance from the company of US$5,000 each, the councillors also received Rp 50 million each from the city budget. Three councillors even took the money although they did not join the trip.
The councillors were Tarmidi Suhardjo, Tarmidi Edy Suwarno, both from PDI Perjuangan and Ali Imron of the United Development Party. Although they claimed they returned the money, the city prosecutor's office has declared them as suspects in the case.