West Java legislative council unsure about Rp 25b payment

Yuly Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

The West Java Provincial Legislative Council has not yet decided on whether it will return to the provincial administration a controversial Rp 25 billion fund distributed to legislators.

Several factions have decided to return the funds while others are waiting for the House's decision on the matter.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction said it had yet to decide on whether it would pay back the funds because the legislative council had not made a decision on it yet.

"We have Rp 7.5 billion in our hands, but we can't do anything because the House has to decide if the funds will be returned to the provincial administration," Rudi Harsa Tanaya, chairman of the PDI Perjuangan faction, told The Jakarta Post here on Thursday.

He was responding to five councillors of the National Mandate Party (PAN) and Crescent Star Party (PBB), who have returned Rp 1.250 billion to their factions.

He said the legislature had yet to set up an agenda on when the housing funds would be discussed since many factions were facing difficulty in returning them as their legislators had spent the money for other purposes.

The scandal came to the surface when councillors of the National Mandate Party chapter spent the money on basic commodities distributed to the needy in the province.

Legislators said they received Rp 250 million each to buy property early this year.

But Governor A. Nuriana said he gave the funds not because the legislature accepted his accountability speech in January but at the request of the legislature's faction.

Factions have agreed to return the money because they said it was against the law, but many have not yet been able to return it as many recipients are facing financial problems.

Most factions decided to return the funds after hearing protests and criticism from numerous sides in the province.