Lawmakers accept puzzling 'payments'

Lawmakers accept puzzling 'payments'

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Several West Java legislative councillors have admitted to
accepting Rp 10 million (US$1,200) each from the West Java Bank,
which is owned by the provincial government.

The payments, which were disbursed less than two months before
the councillors end their five-year terms in April this year, are
suspected to be severance bonuses for the councillors.

Ruchiyat Noor, a councillor of the National Awakening Party
(PKB) faction, acknowledged on Tuesday that he had accepted last
Friday a cash payment of Rp 10 million.

"I received it from the council's finance department. Well, I
was given money, so I simply accepted it," he said.

He claimed that when he signed the corresponding receipt for
the money, he saw that about 20 percent of the total 100
legislators had already signed their receipts.

Ruchiyat did not question the source of the money, because it
was given officially by the finance department and he felt he had
the right to accept it.

Reza Nasrullah, a Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) councillor,
said he had been asked to sign a receipt for the cash, but he and
another councillor from the same party, Yudi Widiana Adia,
refused to take the money. "It's not clear where the money comes
from, nor its purpose," he said.

Reza recalled noticing that the receipt said "Fund for
legislative members from the West Java Bank (Bank Jabar)", so
thought it might have come from that bank.

Separately, West Java Governor Danny Setiawan, who is also a
commissioner of the bank, denied allegations that the Rp 10
million was part of the councillors' severance bonuses.

He said he had no idea where the money came from and why the
money was disbursed to the councillors, and promised to
investigate the matter.

The provision of such "honorariums" to councillors is common
in many regional governments that felt it right to give the
payments to councillors, as they had contributed much to regional
development during their five years in office.

However, several civic affairs non-governmental organizations
and students have opposed the honorariums, saying that the
councillors already receive good salaries. Moreover, they said
many councillors had failed to represent the people's interests
and instead were mere rubber-stamp legislators.