Govt to extend social safety net spending period<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The director general of the budget at the
\nMinistry of Finance, Darsjah, said on Friday that the government
\nwould revise spending on the multibillion dollar social safety
\nnet program next month following recent findings of corruption
\nand inefficiency.<\/p>\n
He said the revision would allow the government to extend the
\nfirst phase of the program, which was supposed to be completed by
\nthe end of the 1998\/1999 fiscal year in March, to June.<\/p>\n
\"The budget for the social safety net program will be reviewed
\nin the middle of March,\" he was quoted by Antara as saying on the
\nsidelines of a debate session on the 1999\/2000 state budget
\nproposal with the House of Representatives Commission VIII for
\nstate budget and finance.<\/p>\n
\"If by the end of March we haven't reached the target, the
\ndisbursement of the social safety net aid will be extended until
\nJune,\" he added.<\/p>\n
The 1998\/1999 state budget for the social safety net program,
\nwhich was designed to help the poor survive the country's worst
\neconomic crisis in three decades, amounts to Rp 17.99 trillion.<\/p>\n
The government admitted recently that the targeted group had
\nreceived less than half of the Rp 12.60 trillion in funds which
\nhad been disbursed by December. The rest was still held up by
\nofficials.<\/p>\n
The trickle pace of aid disbursement to the public,
\nparticularly significant in the Jakarta area, was attributed to
\nthe overly bureaucratic attitude of aid administration officials,
\nwho insisted that recipients have a legal identity card.<\/p>\n
Mar'ie Muhammad, chairman of the aid monitoring team,
\ncriticized the reluctance of the officials, saying that most very
\npoor people in society would not have the identity card for
\n\"obvious reasons.\"<\/p>\n
Several opposition leaders, however, were against the
\ngovernment's plan to prolong the social safety net spending into
\nJune, arguing that this could be used by the current
\nadministration to win popularity ahead of the June 7 general
\nelection.<\/p>\n
The general election is expected to become the country's first
\nopen and fair election after more than 30 years under the
\nauthoritarian rule of former president Soeharto.<\/p>\n
Separately, the International NGO Forum on Indonesian
\nDevelopment (INFID) urged the World Bank, which is one of the
\nleading sponsors of the social safety net program, to postpone
\nthe disbursement of assistance funds until major changes were
\nmade to the program's design and methodology.<\/p>\n
It said in a statement that chronic deficiencies in the
\nplanning, implementation, and monitoring carried out by the
\ngovernment were primarily to blame for the slow pace of the
\nprogram.<\/p>\n
\"Only in this way can the World Bank reduce the likelihood of
\nrepeating past mistakes in Indonesia, and help to uphold good and
\nclean governance in order to mitigate the devastating impact of
\nthe economic crisis on the poor in Indonesia,\" IFID said.<\/p>\n
The Bank had been criticized for continuing to provide loans
\nto the country regardless off the corruption prevalent in the
\nformer Soeharto regime, which some blame for the current economic
\ncrisis.<\/p>\n
The government is proposing some Rp 20 trillion to finance the
\nsocial safety net program in the next 1999\/2000 fiscal year.
\n(rei)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/govt-to-extend-social-safety-net-spending-period-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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