Aid yet all arrived in Nunukan: Task force

Aid yet all arrived in Nunukan: Task force

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Amid the constant influx of undocumented migrant workers from
Malaysia to Nunukan island, East Kalimantan, a local government
official questioned on Sunday the whereabouts of the aid promised
by Jakarta.

Nunukan deputy regent Kasmir Foret said that as of Sept. 13,
the regency had received Rp 1.7 billion (US$191,000) in cash as
well as food supplies and other aid amounting to Rp 3.7 billion.

This figure is far below the government's allotted Rp 34
billion in cash and supplies, not to mention an additional Rp 42
billion donated by a group of state enterprises, who handed over
the aid to the regency last Tuesday.

"We don't know when and how the remaining aid will arrive,"
Foret, who heads the regency's task force handling the situation
of migrant workers sheltering on the island, told The Jakarta
Post by phone.

He said that the regency had only received 120 tons of rice to
feed about 17,000 migrant workers and their families, when 360
tons was expected to come earlier this month. He added that the
rest was still in the Tarakan logistics depot.

Foret denied that there were irregularities in the use of the
humanitarian aid, saying that most of the problems, which had
stemmed from poor facilities for the refugees and the lack of
clean water, had been solved with the construction of shelters.

The Tanjung Mambunut area has 57 barracks, of which 54 are
housing 4,240 people. The 43 barracks in the Sedadap area have
yet to be occupied because they have no kitchen, Foret said.

"During my visit today, I found that a small dam had been
built in the river close to Tanjung Mambunut to provide clean
water, which will be pumped straight to the site's bathrooms," he
said.

Meanwhile, the Jakarta-based watchdog, Government Watch
(Gowa), revealed that it found irregularities in the humanitarian
aid.

Without elaborating on the cause of the irregularities, Gowa
coordinator Farid R. Faqih said that Rp 1.9 billion worth of food
supplies and materials were missing, while another Rp 80 million
in cash had been misappropriated.

The missing supplies include 23 mattresses donated by the
state enterprises and 1,000 cubic meters of timber and 4,000
water pipes donated by the Ministry of Resettlement and Regional
Infrastructure to build the barracks.

Three contractors in Tanjung Mambunut claimed that they bought
the lumber themselves.

Farid, who has been on the island for a week, said that the
Task Force informed him that rice and other food supplies were
kept in several places, but a field check proved that the
information was false.

"With consent from regent Hafid Achmad to examine the task
force's financial report, we also found that about Rp 80 million
in cash was not properly used. For example, the task force had to
pay for bringing the aid to Nunukan," he told the Post.

Volunteers from the Indonesian Buddhist Community (Walubi) at
the Tanjung Mambunut site have complained about a lack of
coordination within the task force, and said that they need more
people to provide meals for the migrant workers and their
families.

Nearly 10,000 workers have reentered Malaysia after obtaining
passports and job orders over the past month. The government will
stop humanitarian mission in Nunukan in November.