"We have decided that building or renting an apartment is not necessary, and the decision is final," House Speaker, Setya Novanto, said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The House of Representatives (DPR) has finally canceled its plan to build an apartment to be used as residence for the members of the House, because the DPR official housing complex in Ulu Jami and Kalibata was still in good condition.

"We have decided that building or renting an apartment is not necessary, and the decision is final," House Speaker, Setya Novanto, noted at Nusantara III Building, Jakarta, on Tuesday.

Novanto remarked that he had spoken to the Chairman of the Development Team Fahri Hamzah and House Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon regarding the cancellation of apartment construction.

Novanto revealed that he had explained to both the officials that DPRs official houses for members in Ulu Jami and Kalibata would take a long process and was impossible to be returned to the Ministry of State Secretariat.

"It has to go through a long process, including State Secretariat first, and many other long processes." The official houses in Ulu Jami and Kalibata are still suitable for DPR members," he noted.

Meanwhile, Novanto explained that it was impossible to accommodate the 560 House members and their staffers based on the current condition.

He remarked that the office building in Nusantara I can only accommodate 800 to 1400 people, while it is currently filled with 560 members of the House, with seven experts and staff in each.

"The team asked me to reconsider the decision related to the construction of the new House of Representatives building, and Pak (Mr) Hamzah, as the team leader, will explain in more detail," he revealed.

In the meantime, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla had earlier asked the DPR to understand that the government was still applying a moratorium on the construction of new buildings.

"Provisionally, the government decides to apply a moratorium on the construction of new buildings, except schools, hospitals, and research centers," Kalla said at his office in Jakarta on Tuesday (Aug 15).

Kalla conveyed the statement to respond to the discourse, which was delivered by Hamzah, on the construction of new buildings and apartments in the building complex of Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPR), DPR, and Regional Representatives Council in Senayan, Jakarta, using the budget from the private sector.

Furthermore, Kalla stated that DPR has rehabilitated all its housing in Kalibata at a cost of hundreds of billions of rupiah in 2010.

"Therefore, housing with massive rehabilitation should be used first. Hundreds of billions of rupiah have been spent to rehabilitate the houses in DPR to provide better housing facilities," he noted.

Since the beginning of the administration, President Joko Widodo has imposed a moratorium on the construction of a new ministry or institution building and the procurement of new land for new institutions or agencies, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung explained.

Anung stated that agencies that currently have no land are required to use state-owned lands.

Infrastructure for other state interests, including the fields of education, public facilities, and the handling of terrorism and drugs, needs to go through a rigorous study. (*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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