TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Consistency of members of the House of Representatives (DPR) to do implement the moratorium of overseas working visits was questioned after Speaker of the House of Representatives gave a green light for the working visit of Commission 7 of the DPR to Morocco and Spain.
Just like the previous working visits, this so-called working visit almost always sparked controversy.
The DPR cannot show the urgency and benefits of the visit that use the people’s money.
The moratorium was also approved by speakers of the DPR and chairman of all fractions on 18 January.
The working visit abroad may not be done special committee of the DPR.
It was also agreed that the reduction of the recess period become two weeks from one month.
Besides saving the budget, this policy also aims to boost the low DPR’s legislation products.
Working visits, including those overseas, is regulated by Law Number 17 of 2014 on the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), the DPR, the Regional Representatives Council (DPD), and the Regional Legislative Council (DPRD).
The regulation indeed does not regulate in details.
It can be understood if Ade Komaruddin defended himself by saying that the visits to Morocco and Spain, which use the budget of the Ministry of the Environment and Forestry, "does not violate the law and does not use the budget of the DPR."
He also believes that the moratorium is still consistently implemented and has saved the budget by Rp 139 billion per year
The question is, what are the differences between the visit that use the DPR budget and the one using non-DPR budget?
Don’t they both use the state money?
The urgency of the overseas visit done by members of the DPR is also often questioned.
In this Internet era, many things can be found in the cyber world although not everything is available yet.
The question is whether the materials needed by the members for the comparative study are not available in the Internet so the working visit become the only option?
The inability to explore the richness of information from the Internet should not become a justification to make an overseas visit.
The requirement of whether or not the working visits are necessary is actually regulated by Regulation of the House of Representatives Number 1 of 2014 on the Code of Conduct of the DPR.
Article 145 of the regulation requires that the barometer of the urgency of the overseas working visits are urgency, benefits and relevance with the formulation of laws.
The benefits of those overseas visits raises doubts because the public does not the results.
In 2011, a researcher from the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) Ade Irawan reported that there are 143 overseas visits done by members of the DPR. However, only three reports were published, which was from Commission III.
Even the materials of the comparative study done by members of the DPR to Sweden was only one page that contains the short description of the activities and the schedule.
It is this kind of practice that makes working visits of the DPR abroad will always suspected as a tactic to travel overseas by using the state money.
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