House denies receiving Rp 168m a year for phone bills

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 05/11/2011 10:19 PM | National

House deputy speaker Anis Matta denied on Wednesday allegations that legislators have been receiving Rp 168 million (US$19,656) in phone credit allowances every year and another Rp 102 million during five recess sessions.

He said phone credit allowances for House members were not that much.

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA) released its latest report that showed that every legislator at the House of Representatives receives Rp 14 million in phone credit every month. They also receive Rp 20 million in communication allowances during every recess session.

“Not that much. Not even half,” Anis said as quoted by kompas.com.

He also said that FITRA might have meant to report the House's budget for lawmakers' political communications allowances and not their phone credit allowances.

Golkar Party legislator Basuki T Purnama said he had never received such an amount. He said he received Rp 7 to 8 million every month for political communications.

National Mandate Party (PAN) faction secretary Teguh Juwarno said he had not paid much attention to how much he received every month because the money always went straight into his bank account.

“Look, I'm trying to find out if [FITRA's data] is correct or not because [lawmakers] don’t feel like [they have been receiving that much]. But I don't want to be pretentious. I don't know what the actual number for communication allowances is ... but I'm not sure it's that much,” he said.

Legislators spend 168m each on phone credit annually: FITRA

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Wed, 05/11/2011 9:21 PM | National

The Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA) has released its latest data that shows that every legislator at the House of Representatives receives Rp 168 million (US$19,656) annually in phone credit allowance.

The data shows that the House budget for phone credit allowance for each legislator is Rp 14 million a month.

“The number excludes phone credit allowance given throughout every recess session,” FITRA coordinator Uchok Sky Khadafi said on Wednesday as quoted by kompas.com.

FITRA says the country's lawmakers receive around Rp 20 million in communication allowance during every recess session. The total money spent on such an allowance reaches Rp 102 million per legislator for five recess sessions annually.

Uchok said in total every lawmaker receives Rp 270 million every year for their communication needs.

“This is a waste of money. It is outrageous. It is obvious that the phone credit allowance goes straight into the pockets of our lawmakers to satisfy their hedonistic desires,” he added.

He said the huge budget allocated for phone credit allowance did not reflect the condition of Indonesian people, who mostly still live below the poverty line.

“Therefore, FITRA is demanding that the House scrap the budget for phone credit allowance and we also reject the plan to increase the budget for recess sessions during 2012,” he said.