PDI Perjuangan boycotts budget session

MEDAN, North Sumatra: The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the largest faction in the North Sumatra provincial legislative council, boycotted a plenary session of the council that passed the province's Rp 972 billion budget.

The party said it would not be to blame if 30 percent of the budget leaked to special interests.

However, local PDI Perjuangan legislator Robinson Sitepu said on Saturday his faction acknowledged the budget was legal because it had been approved by more than half of the council members, despite the boycott.

"If leakages occur in the 2002 budget, PDI Perjuangan is not morally responsible," he told The Jakarta Post.

At least 55 council members from six factions endorsed the budget on Thursday.

The 30-strong PDI Perjuangan faction boycotted the plenary session after its demand for a 20 percent cut in the budgeted Rp 616 billion in routine expenditures was rejected. --JP