Critics slam huge salary for 'underachieving' BRR
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.