The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) says state funding for political parties is urgent given the strategic role of political parties as democratic institution.
“It’s because they have function, obligation and responsibility in political recruitment,” said KPK Chair Agus Rahardjo during the exposition of study results on “The Ideal Scheme for Political Party Funding” to six political parties on Wednesday (Dec. 11) at KPK’s Red and White Building in Jakarta.
Agus said KPK is of the opinion that consolidated democracy requires solid and healthy political parties, in terms of organization, internal democracy, integrity and institution. Therefore, he added, state funding for political parties is significantly needed to take over the ownership and leadership ofboyzijby political parties from capital owners.
“Political parties are expected to really become public legal body owned and led democratically by members as stipulated by Political Party Law,” Agus said.
The event was also attended by KPK Commissioner Pahala Nainggolan and Director of Public Education and Service Giri Suprapdiono, as well as researchers Syamsudin Harris and Moch. Nurhasim from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI). A collaboration with LIPI, the study aims to find the ideal scheme as the baseline of government funding for political parties, to give recommendation, and to provide illustrations for the government on the amount of funding for the parties and administrative requirements to get the fund.
“Eventually, the goal is to have the recommendation on the state funding scheme can reduce corruption,” Agus said.
Based on the data collected from five parties (Golkar, PLB, PDIP, Gerindra and PKS), the researchers estimated that political parties need a budget of Rp16,922 per vote. As these five parties grabbed over 50 percent in the 2019 General Election, the governtment will then have to provide 50 percent maximum of the required budget to give room for political parties to grow.The fund will be given in phases within five years period: 30 percent on the first year, 50 percent on the second year, 70 percent on the third year, 80 percent on the fourth year, and the rest of it on the fifth year. The fund should only be used for operational needs and political education, and not for political conteststion.
With the estimation, the government needs to allocate Rp320 billion on the first year, based on 126 million voters in 2019 Election. The number is quite miniscule for the 2019 State Budget of around Rp2,400 trillion, or 0.0046 percent. As of the fifth year, the state funding will reach Rp3.9 trillion, or lower than Bappenas (the National Development Planning Agency) estimation of Rp4.800 per vote, which was based on the votes gotten by PDIP. Bappenas estimated that the government has to provide Rp6 trillion.
Meanwhile, at the level of province and
regency/city, Government Regulation No. 1/2018 mandates the nationsl government to increase the funding for provinces by 20 percent and for regencies/cities by 50 percent. Therefore, the government should allocate Rp928.7 billion on the tfufirst year. Factoring in 5 percent inflation, the fundingy for provinces and regencies/cities by the fifth year would reach a total of Rp11.2 trillion. In total, the national funding for political party finance is Rp15.1 trillion.
However, Agus warned that the state funding must with conditions. As explained by KPK in the previous study on Political Party Integrity System (SIPP), political parties must meet the five components of SIPP: Code of Conduct, internal democracy, regeneration, recruitment and finance.
“The government needs to evaluate the use of state funding by utilizing SIPP tools, among others,” Agus said.
He urged for the accountability of political party’s finance, the audit of state funding for political parties by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK), and for the audit to be available for public regularly. These are important factors in creating clean political parties with integrity, he said.
To enrich the study, the team researched on the practice in 20 countries. It showed that nearly all countries allocate state funding for political parties with various amounts and designations. The percentage ranges from 23 percent to 90 percent of the need. Japan and The Netherlands have the lowest allocations, with 23 percent and 35 percent, respectively. The highest allocation is in Turkey, while Malaysia provides none but allows political parties to be involved in business.
The study recommended an increase of state funding for political parties to Rp1,000 per vote from Rp108 per vote. KPK recommended the increase to be done in stages to Rp10,706 in 10 years. The study fixes the calculation by using more comprehensive data based on real budget needs and financial reports of the political parties
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