City blames the poor for rejecting subsidized rice<\/p>\n
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Despite the fact that the Jakarta administration is still
\nevaluating possible problems in the distribution of subsidized
\nrice over the past three months, an official was quick to blame
\nthose entitled to the rice for the fact that some had to be
\nreturned to the State Logistics Agency (Bulog).<\/p>\n
\"Not all of the targeted poor families were willing to buy the
\nsubsidized rice. That's why we could not get rid of it 100
\npercent,\" Rohana Manggala, the assistant to the city secretary
\nfor people's welfare, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The subsidized rice is priced at only Rp 1,000 per kilogram,
\nmuch cheaper than the market price of around Rp 3,700 per
\nkilogram for rice of similar quality.<\/p>\n
Rohana added that many of those entitled under the scheme
\npreferred to hold out for free rice, like that provided by the
\nUnited Nations' World Food Program, which distributes about 2,400
\ntons of free rice every month to poor residents who don't have
\nJakarta identity cards.<\/p>\n
A copy of a report from the Bulog, which maintains the state's
\nfood buffer stocks, was made available to the Post on Tuesday.
\nThis shows that the uptake of subsidized rice in January and
\nFebruary of this year hovered at 92 percent, while as of March
\n24, uptake had reached 82 percent.<\/p>\n
The city administration plans to distribute 28,278 tons of
\naffordable rice to at least 117,825 poor families across the
\ncapital this year, or around 2,168 tons per month.<\/p>\n
\"The uptake this year is well above the levels reported over
\nthe past few years, which ranged between 83 and 87 percent,\"
\nRohana said.<\/p>\n
She acknowledged that in the past, the levels of uptake were
\nlower owing to poor coordination between government agencies
\ncoupled with a lack of data about who was entitled.<\/p>\n
According to Rohana, the data on poor families currently being
\nused by the administration was not 100 percent accurate so that
\n\"we need the respective subdistrict administrations to help
\nverify it.\"<\/p>\n
For the purposes of the cheap rice scheme, the administration
\nuses 2004 data from the National Family Planning Board (BKKBN).<\/p>\n
An evaluation made by the Jakarta Planning Board (Bapeda) on
\nthe distribution of subsidized rice in 2002 and 2003 showed that
\nthe administration was still often not reaching those entitled
\ndue to the lack of data.<\/p>\n
\"Poor coordination among the relevant governmental offices
\nduring distribution has also contributed to the fact that the
\nprogram missed its targets,\" the evaluation says.<\/p>\n
It also revealed that the subdistrict administrations, which
\nare in charge of distributing the rice, had fail to
\ncomprehensively report on the progress made to the
\nadministration.<\/p>\n
Bidara Cina subdistrict in South Jakarta was one of those that
\nhad failed to account for the operation of the scheme during
\n2000\/2001, which in this subdistrict's case involved rice worth
\nRp 31 million.<\/p>\n
The subdistrict office has claimed that it cannot hand over
\nthe money to the administration as it gave the rice away free to
\nneedy residents in the subdistrict, who have been repeatedly hit
\nby floods.<\/p>\n
Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo, however, emphasized that the
\nadministration would thoroughly investigate the case to ensure
\nthat there were no irregularities involved.<\/p>\n
\"We have to pursue the case although it involves a relatively
\nsmall amount of money. We must alert people to the fact that they
\nhave to report properly on the distribution of the cheap rice to
\nthe administration,\" Fauzi said.<\/p>\n
Subsidized rice from 2001 to 2004<\/p>\n
Year Number of poor families Value in rupiah<\/p>\n
2001 52,885 2.1 billion<\/p>\n
2002 156,551 6.2 billion<\/p>\n
2003 not available 7.1 billion<\/p>\n
2004 122,212 not available<\/p>\n
Sources: Bapeda, Bulog<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/city-blames-the-poor-for-rejecting-subsidized-rice-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }