Speaker defends Sutiyoso's 'bonus' to councillors

Speaker defends Sutiyoso's 'bonus' to councillors

JAKARTA (JP): In order to end the on-going controversy over
Governor Sutiyoso's alleged bribery attempt on the 85-member city
council, Council Speaker Edi Waluyo on Monday defended the action
saying that the Rp 850 million (US$95,000) fund from the governor
was part of the councillors' welfare fund taken and was taken
from the 2000 city budget.

Edi admitted that city councillors had received the money from
Sutiyoso, but said that it was taken from different headings in
the city budget.

"The Rp 850 million fund was taken from the incentive funds
for all supporting offices, such as the city police chief and
Jakarta regional military commander.

"The city council is also one of the supporting offices in the
capital," Edi said.

"So, the fund was officially from the city administration to
the city council."

He said the decision to distribute the incentive fund came
within the authority of the city administration as the city
council did not have the right to set its own budget.

"The city administration is the one that has the authority to
decide on our funding and income. So, you should question them
instead of us," said Edi raising his voice.

The governor was said to have handed a Rp 10 million "bonus"
to each of the councillors, a few days after delivering his
revised accountability speech on Aug. 22.

The motive remains unclear as Sutiyoso is on an overseas trip
to China until Tuesday.

The councillors, who rejected his initial speech, finally
agreed to accept Sutiyoso's accountability speech on Sept. 4.

Most senior officials in the city administration denied having
knowledge of the fund, saying that Sutiyoso had never said
anything about it and assumed that the money could have been
taken from the city budget's gubernatorial tactical fund.

Discretion

In his capacity as governor, Sutiyoso has the right to use the
money at his own discretion as it is an off-budget fund, similar
to the funds allocated to all top government officials and can be
used without any requirement to furnish explanations to the
public.

Sutiyoso's alleged maneuver to give Rp 10 million cash to each
to the 85 councillors followed another decision to allocate huge
funds from the 2000 city budget for the procurement of land and
cars for the councillors.

A high-ranking official from the city council's secretariat,
who declined to be named, confirmed on Monday that all 85
councillors had received the money and that the secretariat had
all of receipts involved.

Fair

Edi argued that it was only fair that councillors received
additional welfare funds as the current salary for a city
councillor was not that much.

"We receive Rp 7 million per month... but after tax and many
kinds of deduction, we only receive around Rp 4 million and we
cannot ask for an increase in our salary due to public
resistance.

"Our salary is no more than the salary of city administration
officials," he said. (dja)