West Java council members won't return gifts: Speaker

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Turing a deaf ear to public criticism, the West Java provincial legislative council announced on Monday it had no plan to return gifts it received from the local administration.

The speaker of the council, Eka Santosa, said here that the gifts, Rp 250 million in cash given to each councillor to buy plots of land for houses, were not in violation of any laws and that the councillors deserved the money.

"Despite protests from certain groups in society, we won't give the money back to the provincial administration because we think there is nothing wrong with disbursing money from the provincial budget for the presents.

"If we returned the money, that would mean we are admitting there was something wrong in the budget disbursement process. Let the law investigate and see if anything was wrong with the gifts."

Eka said the budget allocation had been approved by both the administration and the 100-member legislative council, with the money to be disbursed in the three fiscal years from 2001 to 2003.

Giving members of the legislative council gifts is a long- established practice, as a show of appreciation from the provincial administration for the council's work. The last group of councillors, who served from between 1997 and 1999, also received similar rewards.

Several councillors have said the gifts give them the incentive to work even harder.

"The full disbursement will comply with all procedures, as it follows the regulation on routine expenditures. All of the faction leaders approved the disbursement," Eka said.

He admitted that the provincial budget did not specifically allocate money to help councillors buy land.

"But it is guaranteed that the funds will not be taken from the routine expenditures allocated for state institutions, such as the police and the prosecutor's office.

"Nor will the money be taken from budget allotted to cover councillors' allowances," he said.

All provincial spending related to the duties of the councillors requires the approval of the minister of home affairs.

A councillor in charge of budgetary affairs, Gatot Cahyono, said the funds would be taken from miscellaneous expenses.

But when shown evidence to the contrary, Gatot, who is a member of the team that arranged for the disbursement of the gifts, said the provincial administration could use money allocated for state institutions.

Due to the confusion, Eka said the council would summon Governor R. Nuriana to clarify the matter.

The council will also question the governor over how word of the gifts leaked to the media, Eka added.