At The Beginning, Getol Supported The DPRD Budget Increase And Recently Refused, PSI: Orders Giring Ganesha

Acting Chairman of PSI Giring Ganesha (Photo: Diah / VOI)

JAKARTA - The chairman of the Jakarta PSI DPW, Michael Victor Sianipar, stated that PSI's attitude of rejecting the increase in the annual work plan (RKT) of the DKI DPRD in 2021 was ordered by the Acting Chairman of PSI Giring Ganesha.

Victor admitted that initially there was no rejection from PSI when discussing the preparation of the RKT which was included in the General Budget Policy and Temporary Budget Ceiling Priority (KUA-PPAS).

After the discussion proceeded, Victor, who received the discussion report from his faction, forwarded the report to Giring Ganesha. From there, Giring stated that PSI would reject the DPRD RKT increase.

"The direction of our chairman, Bro Giring, firmly rejects the RKT increase. In his opinion, is it appropriate, in the midst of a pandemic and an economic situation like this there is an RKT increase?" said Victor at a webinar press conference on Thursday, December 3.

Then, PSI's attitude emerged that refused to increase the RKT during the Plenary Meeting of the approval of the KUA-PPAS APBD in 2021. This made other factions in the DPRD furious.

Victor views that the RKT increase in the midst of a health crisis and the difficulties of the people's economy due to COVID-19 is inappropriate. Moreover, the unemployment rate in DKI has also increased, so it is recommended that the budget be used for the sake of handling the pandemic.

"We see that this increase is inappropriate in the midst of a health pandemic and in the midst of the economic difficulties experienced by the people of DKI Jakarta," he said.

It is known, in the draft APBD for DKI 2021, the RKT for each DPRD member reaches IDR 8,383,791,000. This budget is direct income in the form of salaries and allowances, indirect income, as well as socialization and recess costs.

So, if this is multiplied by 106 members of the DPRD DKI from all factions, it takes a budget of Rp. 888,681,846,000 in one year.

Chairman of Commission A from the DKI DPRD Democratic Faction, Mujiyono explained that not all of these budget increases will go into the private pockets of DPRD members. He said that the increase in direct income was only due to housing allowances and communication allowances.

"What has increased is only housing and communication allowances and that is in accordance with the rules. Other allowances do not increase. The rest is another budget for activities for the community," said Mujiyono.

He said the proposed housing allowance would increase from Rp. 60 million to Rp. 105 million per month for each council member. Meanwhile, transportation allowances increased from Rp. 21 million to Rp. 35 million.

"The total increase in allowances is Rp. 59 million, deducted by income tax, multiplied by 90 percent, it becomes Rp. 53 million," said Mujiyono.

Mujiyono admitted that the budget ceiling that made the RKT appear to have increased was the DPRD's annual activity budget to serve and absorb people's aspirations. This budget is not received directly by DPRD members, but resides at the DPRD DKI Secretariat.

These activities include pre-draft localization socialization, nationality socialization, work visits within the province, faction guidance, and commission field visits. In addition, there is an increase in the quantity of regional regulation socialization from two times a month to four times.