Councillors' welfare decree revised
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Governor Sutiyoso is in the process of revising Gubernatorial Regulation No. 114/2005 on financial affairs, which could result in a sizable cut in the monthly pay of the 75 city councillors.
The revision is a logical consequence of the issuance of Ministry of Home Affairs Regulation No. 37/2005, which scrapped the numerous allowances councillors receive to pad their basic salaries.
"We hope the President will soon replace (home affairs Minister) Muhammad Ma'ruf. He is the mastermind of the government regulation," said one city councillor while talking about the issue with his colleagues last Wednesday.
The government regulation and the planned revision of the gubernatorial regulation are hot topics of conversation among councillors in their office on Jl. Kebon Sirih in Central Jakarta.
Governor Sutiyoso issued Regulation No. 114/2005 in September, which was a revision of an earlier gubernatorial regulation, in response to demands by city councillors for more money.
The regulation was issued after council speaker Ade Surapriatna, on behalf of the Regional Councils Association, said councillors would not deliberate draft regional budgets if the central and regional administrations did not respond to their demands for higher pay.
Regulation No. 114/2005 made it possible for the monthly income of each city councillor to increase from about Rp 25 million (US$2,500) to well over Rp 50 million, thanks to numerous allowances.
Sutiyoso, however, said he now had to revise the regulation because a number of its articles were not in line with Government Regulation No. 37/2005.
City Secretary Ritola Tasmaya said on Wednesday the revision of the gubernatorial regulation was expected to be finished early next year.
He said among the articles that would be revised was one that specified councillors were entitled to incentives for attending public hearings and meetings, or for making official visits inside the city.
The incentives ranged from Rp 2 million for the council speaker to Rp 1.75 million for deputy speakers and Rp 1.5 million for councillors, for each hearing, meeting or official visit.
One councillor, who requested anonymity, said each councillor could earn two to four incentives a day, meaning a councillor could make over Rp 75 million a month.
Several officials have speculated the council's sluggish deliberation of the 2006 draft city budget has something to do with the planned revision of the gubernatorial regulation.
However, this speculation was denied by a deputy speaker of the council, Achmad Heryawan.
"There is no relationship between the prolonged process of the budget deliberation and the planned revision of the gubernatorial regulation," he said on Wednesday.
The council failed to approve the draft budget on Dec. 19, as had been scheduled.
According to Heryawan, the budget deliberations were almost finished and the budget was scheduled to be approved on Saturday.