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)