Assistance funds a long way off
Assistance funds a long way off
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Siti Nurhayati, 35, a resident of Prumpung, East Jakarta has been keeping a low-profile for the past three months as she has not got the money to pay off her debts.
"My family's daily spending eats up my monthly salary of Rp 220,000," said the single parent, who works as a laundry woman to support her two children.
She grumbled that her family's hardships had increased this year, with the cost of living outpacing her salary increase.
She said, since January this year, she had to buy extra rice since the government had halved the subsidized rice given to the poor to 10 kilograms per month, from 20 kilograms last year.
"Not to mention the soaring prices of basic commodities and school fees for my two children, who are now at elementary school, forcing me to provide an additional Rp 35,000 per month for various educational needs, like books and school fees," she said.
Siti, who is among 847,473 residents classified as poor in the capital, may have to wait another three months before she receives financial assistance from the city administration.
The city administration has allocated around Rp 176 billion to cover the education costs of students from poor families.
The House of Representatives has also approved the revised 2005 state budget, paving the way for the money saved from slashing the fuel subsidy to be redirected into financial assistance programs for the poor.
However, according to a senior city official familiar with the programs, related city agencies along with relevant departments of the central government have not completed discussions on how the funds would be disbursed.
"If all discussions go according to schedule, the assistance funds could reach the recipients in mid-September at the earliest," said the official, requesting anonymity.
The official told The Jakarta Post that inter-department discussions were "very tough and time-consuming due to too many institutions involvement."
Tuty Kusumawaty, head of the people's welfare division of the Jakarta Development Planning Board (Bappeda), said the establishment of the programs was a slow process.
"I have tried my best to obtain the necessary information on the detailed implementation of the subsidy from relevant governmental institutions, but so far to no avail," she sighed.
Tuty's division is in charge of coordinating the five financial assistance programs.
Bappeda's document, made available to the Post, showed that of the five programs, data was only available on the subsidized rice for the poor program and education assistance fund.
The government plans to supply a total of 28,278 tons of subsidized rice this year for Jakarta's poor residents.
"At least 65,572 students from elementary school to senior high school will receive educational assistance. The fund totals Rp 5.151 billion, while another Rp 170.8 billion has been earmarked for schools," the document said.
The Rp 5.151 billion fund will be allocated for needy students, while the Rp 170.8 billion will be channeled through schools to help with operational costs, including procuring books, organizing final examinations and paying substitute teachers.
No detailed data was available on the other three programs, which are concerned with health, social work and job creation.
Assistant to the city secretary for people's welfare Rohana Manggala confirmed the administration was yet to finalize plans for the implementation of the projects.