Governor denies bribing councillors on budget speech

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Chairman of the Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta), a non- governmental organization, Azas Tigor Nainggolan revealed on Monday that some councillors had turned down money offered by Governor Sutiyoso to accept his 2001 city budget speech.

Declining to mention the councillors' names, Tigor said each councillor would have received Rp 35 million (US$3,500) if they accepted Sutiyoso's speech scheduled for March 27.

But his statement was refuted by the governor, although he reportedly has allocated Rp 3 billion for the councillors.

"It's slander but I won't sue the people who have accused me of giving money to the councillors," he told reporters at City Hall. "Besides, the budget speech is just a regular event."

Sutiyoso said should his budget speech be rejected by the council, it would still take more time to oust him from his post. An independent team -- comprising officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs, observers and academicians -- will be set up by the government to evaluate any rejection of the speech.

"There's nothing to worry about. I can only hope that the council will objectively evaluate my budget speech," he said optimistically.

The governor's 2000 budget speech was rejected by the council but was later accepted after Sutiyoso revised it within a month.

Some NGOs criticized the council for accepting last year's budget speech, especially after the administration had provided official sedans for councillors.

Despite denying he had bribed any councillors, Sutiyoso admitted that the administration had allocated additional fees for the councillors. The money has been taken from the target surplus of the city vehicle tax revenue.

"The city bylaw states that giving the money is legal," he said.

The bylaw states that members of the city police, the city military command and the city council will receive 1 percent of the tax revenue surplus.

"They are considered to play vital roles in increasing city revenue. Therefore, they deserve to receive the incentive (from the revenue)," city spokesman Muhayat confirmed.

The city revenue from the vehicle tax alone reached about Rp 5 trillion last year.

Following the accusation of bribery, some councillors said they had not been offered money from Sutiyoso's people.

"Not yet. I haven't received any offer," said councillor Mukhayar R.M. of the Justice Party after a plenary session at the council.

He admitted that he had returned money received last year since the receipt was signed by a city official instead of council chairman Edy Waluyo and secretary Moerdiman.

Councillor Lambertus Gaina Dara of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle also said he had not been offered any money.

While councillor Ahmad Heryawan of the Justice Party admitted that each of the 85 city councillors always received Rp 7 million per year from the tax revenue surplus.

"The money is given gradually every four months," he said.

Despite all the suspicion of bribery, councillors have pledged that they would reject Sutiyoso's speech if they found strong evidence of irregularities in the budget report.

They said several programs in the budget, particularly on the garbage management and public order operations, would be firmly questioned.