Budgeted Rp 48.7 Billion, Secretary General Of The House Of Representatives Calls The Curtains For Members' Offices Unchanged Since 13 Years Ago

Secretariat General (Secretary General) DPR Indra Iskandar/PHOTO: Nailin In Saroh-VOI

JAKARTA - The Secretariat General (Sekjen) of the DPR, Indra Iskandar, explained the polemic over the Rp 48 billion budget for curtains at the official houses of DPR members.

According to him, the members of the council complained about the curtains that were no longer suitable to cover the view from outside the house because they were 13 years old.

Indra explained that during the change of members in 2019, the Secretariat General of the DPR had submitted a budget to renovate the house of office as a whole. Including painting and standard equipment in the house of office.

However, the budget is not sufficient. The government, in this case the Ministry of Finance, only provides a ceiling according to the needs of some activities.

“Thirteen (13) years ago, until now there has never been, never been replaced. So, yesterday in 2022, after the budget was available, we included a vitrase component to replace the curtains on the houses of members who are more than 13 years old," said Indra during a press conference at the DPR Media Center, Monday, March 28.

The procurement of the curtains, Indra continued, had been carried out using an open auction mechanism and emphasized that the work plan and conditions (RKS) were very clear.

"Twice I have met, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of domestic production in the RKS," explained Indra.

"So several times the auctions held at the DPR are usually the ones who lose the auction, then leak it to the media and leak it to the legal apparatus as if there was a hengkipengki. There's no hengkipengki, there's no such thing. If you want to auction anything, procedurally, the procurement service unit (ULP) working group in the DPR works professionally," he continued.

Indra added, because there has been no budget allocation from the government since 13 years ago, for the safety of the comfort of the council members, some members had to buy privately.

"It is indeed very inappropriate for the curtains of a house that can block the view from the outside. Now, in 2022, a budget allocation for curtain replacement has only been obtained and only this budget can only be allocated for 505 housing units. only for the 505 housing units per house, the average is around 80 million, which equals 90 million in tax per house, "said Indra.

Indra explained that the components are on the first floor for the living room window, two family room windows, three workspace windows, four main bedrooms, five kitchen windows, and six staircase windows. Then, for the second floor the windows for the children's bedroom, then the windows for the children's bedroom, the void windows for the family room and the windows for the bedroom of the ART.

"So, there are 11 items from the number I mentioned 80 million and that's the 2022 budget ceiling of 48,745.624,000 for the estimated price from the planning consultant or consultant estimate 46,194,954,000. Now, for our own estimated price, we calculate it includes 11 percent VAT of IDR 45,767,446,332. All planning aspects such as design, materials, technical specifications and estimated prices are prepared by planning consultants and through the service unit process," explained Indra.

Furthermore, the Rp48 billion figure, which emerged from the ToR proposed in 2021, was then reviewed by the main inspectorate of the DPR based on the feasibility of the market price and this review was used as the basis for the Secretariat General of the DPR to submit the budget to the ministry of finance.

Before being submitted to the Ministry of Finance, Indra said the mechanism at the Secretariat had also gone through several discussions with the House Affairs Agency (BURT) of the DPR.

“So, besides being reviewed by the main inspectorate, all these activities were also carried out very intensive discussions with the BURT Panja. So Rp 48 billion is curtains, not for 1-2 houses but for 505 houses with 11 items in each house," said Indra.