Assistance funds must go to those who are entitled

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Some women in the neighborhood are arranging tables and chairs on the veranda of a small mosque here. They are also preparing snacks and tea for refreshments. It is 8:45 a.m. Most of the mothers in the neighborhood will start arriving shortly to have their babies examined by doctors.

Regular medical examinations are provided for infants in the RW 8 neighborhood, Pancoran Mas, Depok. Their heights and weights are checked to find out if they are developing normally.

Unlike many neighborhoods in the municipality, this particular neighborhood does not have a posyandu (local integrated health center for low-income people), where medical examinations for infants are normally conducted. They thus use the mosque's veranda for the purpose.

"We -- the mothers of the neighborhood -- can measure the height and weight of the infants ourselves. We need the physicians' help in case there are infants in need of immunization," said Ibu Subandi, the wife of the former local neighborhood chief.

She said, however, that the physicians often failed to turn up and rarely gave prior notice.

Each woman whose baby is examined is asked to pay between Rp 1,000 to Rp 3,000 in fees for the maintenance of the scales and other equipment.

Besides, all the families in the neighborhood, who are mostly poor, are required to pay a monthly fee to purchase refreshments for the doctor, the organizing committee members, and the infants.

Each of the infants receives a snack in the form of a cup of jelly, boiled egg or porridge.

According to Ibu Subandi, the neighborhood used to receive financial assistance from the subdistrict for these sort of things, but they hadn't received such subventions for more than a year. Now, they had to finance the program by themselves.

Following the government's promise to help the poor using the money saved from fuel subsidy spending following the increase in fuel prices, the people of the neighborhood hope they will not have to dip into their small incomes to pay for the program in future. However, there is no certainty that they will get as much as they need.

A study by the Tim Indonesia Bangkit research group reveals that the low-income assistance program using "fuel compensation funds" conducted in 2001-2003 only reached 30 percent of the targeted poor people.

Citing a survey by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2004, the group said that only 26.53 percent of poor people received medical assistance, while 33.34 percent of the children from poor families received assistance with their education. Furthermore, only 25.93 percent of poor people received subsidized rice, and 9.89 percent of them were able to obtain soft loans.

The government has vowed to improve the distribution of the assistance funds, which will amount to Rp 17.9 trillion this year. Of the funds, Rp 5.6 trillion will be allocated on the provision of educational assistance to 9.6 million elementary, junior high, and senior high school students from poor families.

Another Rp 5.4 trillion will be spent on providing subsidized rice to 8.6 million poor families.

In addition, Rp 2.1 trillion will be spent on improving health services for 36.1 million poor people, and the provision of free medical treatment at either community health centers (puskesmas) or public hospitals.

State Minister for National Development Planning/National Development Planning Board Chairwoman Sri Mulyani Indrawati has acknowledged that it is difficult for the government to channel the money to those entitled as it does not know exactly which families deserve help. The central government could only estimate the amount of money needed by each province.

She said that the central government would have to rely on regents, mayors and governors to select the families that deserved help. In turn, the regents, mayors and governors would have to rely on district, village and neighborhood heads to make the selection.

She said the central government was setting up a monitoring team to ensure that the money went to those who were entitled, adding that every citizen and non-governmental organizations would be allowed to participate in monitoring.

However, Urban Poor Consortium coordinator Wardah Hafiz stated that her organization would refuse the invitation to participate in monitoring.

She emphasized that the government only needed to ensure transparency in the distribution of the assistance funds.

Wardah, who has received the prestigious Yap Thiam Hien human right award, added that there must be clarity as to who would get what.

"All we need is transparency. If the process is transparent, we will not need monitoring that will only cost more money," she told The Jakarta Post.