Councillors insist on clothing budget

Councillors insist on clothing budget

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Never ones to be dissuaded by criticism, city councillors are
pushing ahead in their quest for a larger clothing budget. City
Council chairman Agung Imam Sumanto insisted on Wednesday an
additional Rp 435.78 million (US$51,268) for councillors' clothes
must be included in the 2003 city budget.

"Don't make this a big issue. It's only about clothes, and the
councillors have a right to it," said Agung from the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

The non-revised budget allocates Rp 778.13 million for the
councillors' clothes, part of the Rp 117.21 billion in total the
budget allocates for the City Council in 2003.

The council has proposed that it receive an additional Rp
984.78 million in total, which city administration officials and
the councillors are discussing.

Ridho Kamaluddin, the chairman of the United Development Party
(PPP) faction at the council, said the additional Rp 435 million
for clothes only worked out to about Rp 5 million per councillor.

"It's OK if this is dropped from the budget but it is our
right," he said.

Council deputy chairman Chudlary Syafi'i Hadzami said the
clothes budget helped "improve the welfare of councillors".

The chairwoman of the City Council's Commission C for
financial affairs, Anna Rudhiantiana, said earlier the additional
Rp 435.78 would be used to purchase "special" clothes for the end
of the councillors' term next year.