Megawati rejects interpellation motion
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri has asked members of the party's faction in the House of Representatives to avoid exercising their right of interpellation concerning the Rp 30 billion presidential donation she made to the Indonesian Military (TNI).
"The chairwoman has clearly ordered that the case be probed by a House commission hearing, not by exercising the right of interpellation," the party's deputy secretary general Agnita Singadikane told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
Agnita declined to say whether Megawati, who is also the President, was prohibiting the party's legislators from joining 28 fellow House members from other factions who have proposed to the House leaders a motion seeking a presidential clarification about the source of the donation.
Megawati, Agnita said, had briefed PDI Perjuangan members about the case and asked them not to make a fuss about it.
Megawati extended the money in February for the rehabilitation of housing occupied by families of TNI and National Police rank and file members.
State/Cabinet Secretary Bambang Kesowo has explained that the money was taken from the Presidential Aid Fund, known as Banpres in Indonesian, an off-state budget fund introduced by former president Soeharto in 1970.
Last week, the chairman of the Supreme Audit Agency, Satrio B. Judono, said the use of the fund for a presidential donation was improper. In response to the statement, Bambang Kesowo said he would clarify the issue during a hearing with House Commission I for security and political affairs as soon the House reassembled in May.
Collecting money for non-budgetary funds from state-owned companies was stopped in 1995 and since she ascended as President in July last year, Megawati has said she had decided to stop all use of such funds.
Presidential Decree No.4/2000 issued by former president Abdurrahman Wahid stipulates that all non-budgetary funds should be incorporated into the state budget, and that their disbursement must be approved by the Minister of Finance.
During the three decades of the Soeharto regime, trillions of rupiah had been raised through the Presidential Assistance Fund scheme. The BPK reported that the fund had been reduced to only Rp 540 billion in 2000, and that only Rp 330 billion was left in 2002.
Vice President Hamzah Haz admitted on Friday that some of the Presidential Assistance Fund had been used to finance various social activities of both the President and Vice President.
"But I can assure you that the money is still there and the fund has been undergoing reorganization as regards its status and usage," Hamzah said.