The Tangerang City Regional Legislative Council (DPRD) is getting some major backlash online after reports surfaced suggesting that the councillors would be wearing uniforms made of materials from French luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton.
In a voice recording obtained by news outlets, Hadi Sudibjo from Tangerang City DPRD’s Procurement Service Unit Working Group (Pokja ULP) said that the officials’ uniforms will be made out of textiles from four different brands this year.
Hadi further explained that different fabric brands have been selected for different types of uniforms. For example, the officials’ formal wear will be made using fabric from a brand called Lanificia di Calvino. While most of the brands are relatively unknown — at least for the ears of ordinary citizens — the name Louis Vuitton popped up for the daily official uniform, causing some unsurprising hubbub.
The mere mention of Louis Vuitton in relation to official business have sparked debates online, with netizens questioning whether or not these city councillors are actually set on donning the luxury brand’s ready-to-wear (RTW) collections, or merely using similar materials from the same supplier. With mounting speculations abound, an Indonesian representative of the luxury brand has denied those claims.
“Louis Vuitton never has a business segmentation for sales of material fabric or uniform,” Louis Vuitton Indonesia’s communications manager said today.
Now, funds for the textile procurement — intended for Tangerang DPRD’s 50 members — amount to a whooping IDR675 million (US$46,898) this year, which is more than twice last year’s budget of IDR312.5 million (US$21,712).
Hadi had also said that a decision-making unit called PPK had decided on those textile brands, after conducting a lab test that basically determined whether or not they met PPK’s desired material specifications.
“[Pokja ULP] evaluated the lab result to find out if it suits what the PPK wanted or not,” Hadi said.
Pokja ULP is in charge of looking for suppliers through a tender process that concluded on July 21, which they handed over to PPK.
With all of this happening in recent weeks, it appears that Tangerang City DPRD Speaker Gatot Wibowo wasn’t entirely aware that the uniform budget has more than doubled, claiming that the matter is the responsibility of the council’s Secretariat.
Gatot also claimed that he didn’t know about the materials, even the colors, of the textiles, and said that he as the DPRD head didn’t have any power to choose cheaper options due to DPRD’s form as a “collegial collective.”
Furthermore, the council’s secretary Agus Sugiono also claimed that he didn’t monitor the budget differences nor was he aware of the textile specifications.
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