Jakarta, June 19 (Antara) - The House of Representatives' (DPR's)
constituency development funds program, popularly called the aspiration
funds, has ignited a controversy since the public views it as a pork
barrel that could lead to dissipation and corruption.
"It
is better (for the House) to stop deliberating on it, let alone
disbursing the money, as it could lead to wastage of funds and create
new corruption, collusion, and nepotism practices," Lely Arrianie, the
chief of the Jayabaya University's Post-Graduate Program on
Communications, stated on Wednesday.
Earlier,
Chairman of the House of the Budgetary Committee Ahmad Noor Supit noted
that the DPR was planning to allocate Rp11.2 trillion to all
legislators as aspiration funds for regional development in their
respective constituencies. The funds will be set aside in the Draft 2016
State Budget.
Each
of the 560 members of the House will receive Rp20 billion as aspiration
funds and will be channeled to the regional governments for use in
projects based on the development agenda of the constituencies.
According
to DPR Deputy Speaker Taufik Kurniawan, the proposal of the aspiration
funds scheme was put forth during several consultation meetings between
the leaderships of the DPR and the House's factions. The scheme has been
announced in the House's plenary meeting on February 17, 2015.
However,
according to Lely Arrianie, the funds can potentially be misused and
can create injustices among constituencies, as most of the House members
represent constituencies in Java.
"Because
majority of the DPR members represent the constituencies in Java, most
of the funds will be allocated to Java Island, and this will run counter
to the urgency of implementing equitable development programs for all
regions," Arrianie pointed out.
Therefore,
she called on the legislators to focus on supervisory, budgetary, and
legislative functions by studying the aspirations of their respective
regions. The funding of the program is based on the aspirations and
should be channeled through the state or regional government budget
(APBN or APBD).
"So,
if the legislators are willing to fight for aspiration funds for the
people's interest, they should not do it in the current form but through
the fund programs set in the APBN or APBD," the communications expert
explained.
In the meantime, the People's Care-For Indonesian
Parliament Forum (Formappi) reminded the government on the need to avoid
getting trapped in a budgeting play with the DPR when it approves the
aspiration funds worth Rp11.2 trillion.
"The government should reject the proposal of aspiration funds if it
wants to avoid the trap of the budget play with the DPR," Formappi
researcher Lucius Karus noted on Thursday.
As the budgetary authority holder, the government should firmly reject the pork barrel fund scheme, he emphasized.
Not all legislators of the DPR personally agreed to the aspiration fund
plan. For instance, Effendi Simbolon, a politician of the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), has rejected the scheme.
"It is acceptable to make a proposal. However, if a ceiling of Rp20
billion is fixed for each legislator, then I will personally reject it.
To what extent the commission will be there? If the aspiration funds
scheme is really endorsed, I will not use it," Simbolon stated on
Thursday.
Meanwhile, DPR Deputy Speaker Fahri Hamzah remarked that the aspiration
funds scheme was proposed as an implementation of the House's
constitutional task and oath of office, which was regulated by the law.
He said that rejecting the aspiration funds meant rejecting the
implementation of the Constitutional obligations and violating the House
members' oath of office.
"The DPR only implements the law. The law has regulated the need to
hear the constituents' aspirations. This also is an implementation of
the oath of office," Hamzah pointed out.
In the legislative institution law (UU MD-3) and the oath of office, it
is regulated that the DPR members have the obligation to defend their
constituents.
"If it is not implemented, it is clearly a violation of the Constitution and the oath of office," Hamzah emphasized.
According to Simbolon, the proposal for the aspiration funds was
initially based on Article 80G of the DPR Internal Rule based on Law No.
17 of 2014 on MD-3 (legislative institution law).
The article regulates that the DPR members can propose a program to be
included in the state budget. However, a problem exists here, as the DPR
Internal Rule contains an article that is not in line with the other
articles in it. For instance, Article 195, point (2) and (5) are not in
line with point (6).
"Because point (2) and point (5) are not synchronized with point (6),
the House's Legislation Body is now deliberating to amend it," Simbolon
affirmed.
Thus, the House will go ahead with its aspiration funds proposal, as it
has been agreed in the House's plenary meetings.
According to DPR Deputy Speaker Taufik Kurniawan, the House members
should not reject the aspiration funds, as it has been decided during
the DPR's plenary sessions.
"This issue should not be used as an image building measure (by
rejecting the scheme). The aspiration funds proposal has been agreed
upon during the plenary sessions," affirmed Kurniawan on Tuesday.
He remarked that all factions of the House had agreed to it. "If the
legislators wanted to reject it, they should have done it during the
plenary session in the past and not now," he added.
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(T.A014/INE/o001)
EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/O. Tamindael) 19-06-2015 13:42: |
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