30,000 poor vendors to get Rp 4b

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Almost 30,000 needy vendors in Bekasi municipality will receive financial aid to develop their businesses as part of a government program to alleviate poverty.

Each vendor will receive between Rp 500,000 (US$56) and Rp 2 million, which is interest-free and must be repaid within two years, Antara reported.

The central government has allocated Rp 4 billion toward the Urban Poverty Alleviation Program (P2KP) in Bekasi. The fund will be distributed to 29,148 poor people whose applications were approved by their respective subdistrict's Self-financing Community Board. The applications were submitted to the chiefs of each subdistrict's Self-financing Group.

Bekasi Deputy Mayor Mochtar Mohammad underlined the importance of the program in alleviating poverty, saying that poverty could increase the crime rate.

He said on Thursday that people who are categorized as "poor" were those who could not afford medical treatment at Community Health Centers (Puskesmas), could not afford two meals a day, and were homeless.

"If the local administration fails to alleviate poverty, it is likely that there will be more crimes," he said.

He said that the administration would evaluate the program and assess its results, and promised to punish any officials who abused the fund.

"Whoever embezzles money from the fund will face the law," he warned.

The program is similar to the Subdistrict Community Empowerment Program (PPMK) in Jakarta.

The city administration has allocated Rp 500 million toward each of the 267 subdistricts here to help small-scale traders develop their businesses.

However, the program, which commenced two years ago, has been marred by various irregularities involving subdistrict officials and subdistrict council members.

The program has also failed, because in many cases, the recipients did not receive any entrepreneurship training on how best to use the fund. There were also others who spent the money not to develop their business, but for personal use, including buying consumer goods such as televisions and refrigerators.

Amid widespread irregularities in the program, activists here have called for the suspension of the distribution of this year's fund.

The city administration, however, has rejected the demand, saying that a subdistrict chief would be assigned to monitor closely the disbursement of the money, which is managed by the subdistrict council.