House under pressure to end closed budget discussions
House under pressure to end closed budget discussions
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Pressure continued on Friday for the House of Representatives to
open their meetings on the state budget to ensure transparency,
in the wake of allegations of state funds being "traded" between
legislators and local officials.
The deputy speaker of the Regional Representatives Council, La
Ode Ida, said institutions such as the House and ministries took
advantage of the fact that budget talks were not open to the
public to engage in conspiracy and the sale of the budget.
"It is the system, be it at the House or at the Ministry of
Finance, which limits information to a few people. This paves the
way for some people to perform so-called 'bridging' tasks between
the central and local administrations," he said.
La Ode was commenting on the recent scandal involving the
state budget, including the sale of postdisaster relief funds,
allegedly involving House budgetary committee members who asked
for bribes from local officials to help disburse or increase
allotted funds for their regions.
Local officials, said La Ode, unfortunately get caught up in
the system, offering bribes and later embezzling the funds.
"We cannot blame just the House for this practice. We also
have the institutions in Jakarta and local officials themselves,"
he said.
La Ode said he was told by a local official that he had once
been asked by a current House member to pay a 10 percent fee for
the disbursement of funds.
"I call on all officials to report such cases to the
authorities. Let us use this to push the central institutions to
be transparent, although I personally doubt that many will
(report the cases) because they are also involved in embezzling
funds," he said.
Those areas approached by House members or brokers, said La
Ode, usually had limited local funds but relatively good networks
of businesspeople.
Legislator Suryama M. Sastra shared La Ode's view, and
submitted on Friday to the House leadership a proposal to amend
the House regulations to open as many meetings as possible to the
public.
"The House must immediately take substantial steps that
demonstrate its will to minimize abuses in deliberating the state
budget. It is imperative that the House makes sure that all
budget talks are open to the public," he said.
The House legislative body is currently deliberating whether
it will review its regulations concerning opening meetings to the
public.
According to current regulations, all meetings or sessions by
the House budgetary committee are open to the public unless
declared closed. But the fact is that the meetings are always
closed.
"In addition, there must never be any official meetings
between the House and outsiders held outside the House building.
There must be no more backroom deals," said Suryama.