No golden handshakes for councillors: Activists

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Non-governmental organization activists criticized local administrations across the country, including in Jakarta, for handing out unofficial "severance packages" to legislative councillors at the end of their terms.

The activists said there were no regulations to justify administrations awarding this money or councillors accepting it.

The coordinator of the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra), Laode Ida, said on Thursday the public must oppose this type of activity for two reasons: first, there is no regulation on the issue and second, it encourages councillors to represent the administration rather than the public.

"If they want money, they should ask their respective parties for it," he said at a seminar on the issue.

According to Fitra, the Jakarta administration has allocated Rp 2.13 billion (US$253,571) in "severance pay" for its 85 councillors, or more than Rp 25 million each. This does not include the Hyundai cars the councillors received. The cars are valued at about Rp 64 million.

Forty-five councillors in Bekasi municipality will receive Rp 100 million each, the activist said.

Councillors in Tangerang municipality, however, are not so lucky, as the local administration there announced earlier that it would not see the outgoing councillors off with envelopes full of money.

"We must strongly oppose any state funds being allocated for these types of unofficial severance packages. That money is needed for more important things like poverty eradication and education for the poor," Laode said.

If the Rp 2.13 billion allocated by the Jakarta administration for the councillors was added to the city's budget for education, at least 2,234 children would be able to enjoy one year of free education at the elementary school level.

On average, it costs Rp 953,350 to send a child to elementary school for one year, according to activists.

In the current city budget, the allocation for education and health falls below the 30 percent of the total budget stipulated in the Constitution.

The chairman of the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta), Uli P. Sitompul, said current regulations only allowed for employees to receive severance pay from their employers.

Quoting Government Regulation No. 110/2000 on compensation for state officials and Ministry of Home Affairs circular No. 161/2003 on pay for regional councillors, Uli said: "Neither regulation allows for severance pay for councillors at the end of their terms."

Laode said councillors were not above accepting the money, which they would either use for their reelection campaign or for their retirement.

Jakarta councillor Abdul Azis Matnur from the Justice Party (PK), however, denied councillors received severance pay.

"Before I came here (to the seminar), I sought information from Pak Ibnu on this pay and he said there was no such thing," he said, referring to council deputy chairman Ibnu Sumantri.