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.