Assistance funds must go to those who are entitled

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.