The Government Is Desperately Facing The Pandemic, The South Sulawesi DPRD Is Even Busy Buying Official Clothes At A Price Of Rp. 1 Billion

South Sulawesi Provincial DPRD Office. (Photo: era.id)

JAKARTA - The procurement of three types of official clothing for members of the DPRD of South Sulawesi Province has received attention from the Indonesian Legislative Monitoring Committee (Kopel). Kopel assessed that the Rp1 billion cost for the procurement of clothing was considered a waste in the midst of the government facing the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It is unfortunate that the budget was not included in the refocusing of the handling of COVID-19. Even though the community is currently facing the impact of the pandemic," said Kopel Indonesia senior researcher, Herman quoting ERA, Sunday, August 15.

According to Herman, the use of costs should be seen from the urgency. Although wearing new clothes has nothing to do with performance improvements.

"Of course it does not correlate with the handling of the outbreak. In fact, every Regional Apparatus Organization asked for a budget cut, in fact the budget was also included in handling the pandemic," said Herman.

Herman reminded that as a member of the legislature, the people's representatives should be sensitive to current conditions. Because, according to him, the public will assess the extent of the council's role in dealing with the problem in South Sulawesi.

He suggested that the budget for the official clothes be temporarily suspended or included in the COVID-19 refocusing.

Separately, the Secretary of the South Sulawesi DPRD, Muhammad Jabir said, the estimated budget for the procurement of official clothes for the 85 members reached Rp. 935 million.

Currently, the tender stage is entering a rebuttal period. The procurement of official clothes was only proposed after the members of the council were sworn in in 2019.

"We have only budgeted for this year, because it has been two years since the members of the council were appointed. In 2020, the DPRD budget was also refocused, so it's only this year," he explained.

The DPRD's official clothing budget, he said, has three types, namely Daily Civil Clothing (PSH), Official Civil Clothing (PSR) and Daily Service Clothing (PDS). Each member gets three pieces of official clothes each.

From observations on the lpse.sulselprov.go.id website, it was recorded that there were 24 companies participating in the tender, 10 of which have submitted bids and prices are connected to the rules of the standard tender price on the site.