Critics slam huge salary for 'underachieving' BRR

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

Antigraft activists have criticized members of the Aceh and Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR) as "overpaid and underachieving".

"The salary of the BRR chairman is higher than the President's. It is also higher than the salary of the Corruption Eradication Commission chief, who does a lot more work," Akhiruddin Wahyuddin, coordinator of the Aceh Anticorruption Movement (Gerak), said here on Tuesday.

According to Gerak, BRR chairman Kuntoro Mangkusubroto's monthly take-home pay is Rp 75 million (US$7,500). His deputy is paid Rp 62.5 million and other top executives receive Rp 35 million a month.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's monthly salary, according to the corruption watchdog, is about Rp 62.7 million.

"Allocating that much money for BRR staff is insulting. So many Acehnese are still living in refugee tents (following the Dec. 26 tsunami)," Akhiruddin said.

He said the BRR's total budget of Rp 3.9 trillion came from an interest moratorium on Indonesia's debts to donor countries.

"That money should be used for tsunami victims," Akhiruddin said, calling the salaries being paid to BRR executives "another form of legalized theft of public funds".

Gerak also criticized the large budget allocation for housing for BRR officials, which the group said amounted to Rp 440 million per year for the chairman, his deputies and secretary.

Gerak demanded that the BRR and the House of Representatives review the agency's budget, and urged the agency to be more transparent in managing its budget.

BRR deputy head for communications and information Sudirman Said welcomed the criticism, but said the budget allocations cited by the group were not final.

"The President has yet to approve (the budget)," Sudirman said, adding that high salaries were a good way to prevent officials from becoming involved in corruption.

The agency has been criticized at home and abroad for the slow pace of reconstruction in Aceh, which was devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami that left over 200,000 people dead or missing.