A Luxury Rp 8 Trillion New DPR Building Equipped with Pool and Spa
Behind the Glitz of the 2010 Budget
-49-
The DPR’s Dysfunctional Budget: a Black Mark against Senayan
The House of Representatives DPR was in the spotlight for the whole of 2010. It was hoped that the new DPR elected in the 2009 general election would bring a breath of fresh air to the way in which
the institution represented the people. But, when it set about discharging its budgetary role, it became apparent that the DPR was looking after own interests first. In the process, it was roundly criticized
by the community and its credentials began to be questioned. But the DPR was totally unmoved, acting as if it were operating in a cocoon. Its performance throughout 2010, outlined below, is nothing
less than a black mark against the name of this Senayan-based institution.
1. A Luxury Rp 1.8 Trillion New DPR Building Equipped with Pool and Spa
The first mention of the plan to construct a new DPR building was on 15 January 2010 in a speech to the DPR’s In-house Affairs Committee known as BURT by the Secretary-General of the DPR
Dra. Nining Indra Shaleh M.Si. The speech was entitled ―
Explanatory Notes of the DPR Secretary-
General on the Budget Performance Checklist DIPA of the DPR for 2010
‖. According to that DIPA, Rp 1.2 trillion was to be allocated for the DPR and Rp 734 million for the Secretariat-
General. At the meeting on 15 January, the Secretary-General asked the members of BURT to endorse the
proposed construction of a new DPR building at a cost of Rp 1.6 trillion
— a level of expenditure which had already been approved by the previous DPR which occupied Senayan from 2004-09. The
BURT membership readily signed off on the proposal. When the proposal went before the DPR’s Budget Committee called Banggar, the amount
allocated for the project rose to Rp 1.8 trillion. The increase was justified by the inclusion of proposals to reinforce the structure of the Nusantara I building Rp 67.8 billion and to draw up a
master plan for the new DPR complex Rp 133.3 billion based on a multi-year program of work. This additional funding was included in the 2010 APBN-P Table 1.
Table 1 Use of DPR Allocations in the 2010 Revised Budget APBN-P
No Program Details
DIPA for 2010 APBN- P
Rp billions
1 Master plan
133.2 2
Renovation of MPs ’ offices
4.5 3
Structural reinforcement of Nusantara I building 35.0
4 Construction of rooms for expert staff, legal drafters and
researchers 25.0
5 Replacement of guide rails and control mechanisms of
elevators in Nusantara I Building 3.3
Total 201.1
Source: data on work unit of DPR Secretariat-General in 2010 APBN-P, processed by Seknas FITRA
The BURT’s endorsement of the DPR building plan and the additional funding for the plan put forward by Banggar were apparently not well thought through decisions. The recommendation of
the 2004-09 DPR was that the new DPR building could be developed in 2, 3, 4 or more years. In other words, it was not an urgent project. But it now looked as if the construction of a new DPR
building had become a project to keep the members of BURT busy.
Behind the Glitz of the 2010 Budget
-50-
Interestingly enough, in response to public criticism, the proposed budget of Rp 1.6 trillion was cut back to Rp 1.2 trillion. That served to heighten suspicion that something unsavory was going on
within the legislature; and that skullduggery was involved in planning for the new grandiose DPR building. But the DPR, acting as if it lived in a cocoon, persisted in the allocation of the proposed
Rp 200 billion in the APBN-P for 2010.