Indonesia: Increasing Salary of DKI DPRD Members in the Middle of a Pandemic

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Plans to increase the income of DKI Jakarta DPRD members emerged after circulating among journalists on the draft budget for the 2021 DKI Jakarta DPRD Annual Work Plan (RKT). In the draft confirmed by the Regional Representative Council of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (DPW PSI) as a valid draft for the drafting of the DKI Jakarta DPRD RKT, a fantastic budget amount for each member of the council is written.

At least every member of the DKI Jakarta DPRD can pocket Rp. 8.3 billion per year or the equivalent of Rp. 689 million per month. After the issue of the RKT budget amounting to Rp 888 billion for 106 DPR members surfaced, various reasons for the factions in the DKI Jakarta DPRD agreed to this.

For example, the reason came from the Golkar faction who said the draft RKT was prepared with the noble intention of DPR members to be closer to the community.

Chairman of the Golkar Faction DPRD DKI Jakarta Basri Baco said, with the RKT programs being prepared each DPRD member can carry out a socialization program without burdening personal finances. The intention of the Council is good and noble to take care and correctness in matters of allowances and activities as well as dedication to each electoral district.

Approval also came from Deputy Chairman of the Gerindra Party faction at the DPRD DKI Jakarta, S Andyka. This time the reason is that many programs arranged in the RKT are used for activities that are in touch with the community.

He said, so most of the programs are for the community, how come we talk about salary. So most of the programs are for the community, how come we talk about salary

He explained that one example of the activity was the socialization of the draft regional regulations that were included in the RKT.

He said, this activity was carried out because many people felt that they were not involved in drafting local regulations. That is why, continued Andyka, the DPRD compiles and proposes a program that aims to disseminate the draft perda and ask for input from the public. Because so far, when it comes to the matter of drafting a regional regulation, most of them come from academics, from experts, this representative, never directly from the community.

The tone of support for the increase in the RKT budget also emerged from the PKS Faction which considered the increase in the budget to be reasonable when viewed from the side of the large DKI Jakarta Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBD).

Secretary of the PKS Jakarta DPRD faction Achmad Yani said, we see in DKI Jakarta, if we look at the APBD (proposed RKT 2021) we are small. He compared several regions in Indonesia that can use the APBD for council activities up to 3.3 percent of the total APBD. However, in DKI Jakarta, council activity has not yet reached one percent.

Achmad said, so while in DKI it is still zero point. The Democrat faction expressed the same reason, which assessed that the DKI Jakarta Regional Budget was still much larger than the budget proposed in the RKT.

The Chairperson of the DKI Jakarta DPRD, Prasetyo Edi Marsudi, emphasized that all the salaries and allowances for the 2021 DKI Jakarta DPRD will be returned to the same amount in 2020. He said, all the amounts listed regarding the salaries and allowances of DKI DPRD members in the Work Plan (RKT) have been evaluated and will be returned to their original state.

Prasetyo, Monday said, now I declare, I am the Chairman of DPRD members, all of them (RKT budget) are evaluated and returned to the 2020 APBD. The Rp 700 million per month salary circulating on social media was not true. Prasetyo said that the RKT budget distributed by the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) was a public lie. This is because the budget that is distributed is the budget that has not been evaluated. These logs (scattered drafts) have not been completed, finally resolved, there will be revisions, yes, I will return them to 2020.