JAKARTA (Indonesia Today) – Independent Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA) believes government’s budget for business travel of Rp21 trillion or about US$2.2 billion for 2013 is way too big. Government should cut the travel expenses to somewhere around US$1 billion.

Uchok Sky Khadafi, advocation coordinator at FITRA, said the budget can be reduced more than half to Rp10 trillion. The Rp21 trillion cost is mostly due to the habit of Indonesian officers in sending a big group of people to attend workshop or seminars.