As we told you yesterday, the Jakarta City Council recently submitted their budget proposal for all of the “working trips” they want to take in 2016. The budget includes trips to six foreign countries, including a trip to Rotterdam, paid for by taxpayer money, mainly to see if Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama’s trip to Rotterdam last month was a waste of taxpayer money.
But that is hardly the only ridiculous request in the City Council’s proposed budget. They have also asked for money to take a whopping 12 trips to Bali next year on the government’s rupiah.
Now, to be fair, those 12 trips are not all meant for the entire City Council – two are for the Budget Committee, two for the Consultative Body, two for the Ethics Council, three are for the Special Committee and the last three are for various commissions.
But it is surprising that the City Council would insist on taking so many trips to Bali after their last one in September was so roundly criticized.
During that trip, members of our esteemed City Council were supposed to have a meeting with Commission D of the Balinese Parliament. But when they arrived at the Bali Parliament building, they found out that Commission D was also out on a working trip (apparently nobody bothered to actually coordinate their meetings).
So all the Jakarta City Council members accomplished at the Bali Parliament was to take turns going to the building’s toilet before getting back onto their bus.
Despite that fiasco, the City Council thinks they deserve multiple trips to Bali again next year, at an average cost of Rp 2.15 billion for each trip.
Ahok could barely contain his shock when he heard about the request.
“The City Council wants to visit Bali 12 times, what are they trying to do? It means later they’ll just ask the same things,” Ahok said today, as quoted by Kompas.
But Ahok conceded he has no control over the budget approval for the City Council’s working trips. It’s too bad he doesn’t, because we would love to see Ahok laugh in their faces for making such ridiculous requests.