BGN Deputy Reveals KPK Recommendations on Free Nutritious Meals Were Ignored Under Previous Leadership

The leadership of the National Nutrition Body (BGN) held a hearing with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to discuss recommendations from a review concerning the governance of the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) programme. Following the meeting, BGN Deputy Head Agustina Arumsari stated that the KPK’s review recommendations had been received on 17 March 2026, when the body was still led by Dadan Hindayana. However, she noted that the recommendations were not followed up during that era. “On 17 March 2026, the KPK provided the results of its review. That was still under the previous leadership. When we arrived on 2 June 2026, we saw that the review results had not yet received a response,” Agustina told reporters at the KPK’s Merah Putih building in South Jakarta on Tuesday. Agustina explained that the recommendations were only finally acted upon after former BGN Head Dadan and his two deputies, Sony Sonjaya and Lodewyk Pusung, were named corruption suspects in the MBG governance case by the Attorney General’s Office. She said the follow-up involved forming an internal team at the BGN for each improvement recommendation. “We studied all ten findings one by one. As should be the case with findings from the Audit Board or the Development Finance Comptroller, every government agency receiving recommendations must prepare an action plan to follow them up,” Agustina clarified. “Therefore, we formed a team, discussed the ten findings, and drafted the action plan.” During the hearing with KPK leadership, Agustina said her side also presented the BGN’s corrective action steps. She expressed confidence that the KPK would scrutinise the improvement measures taken by the BGN closely. “We certainly believe the KPK will not be satisfied merely with the documents we submitted. They want to see more concrete evidence of what we will do in the future, not just what is written, but what we will actually implement,” she stated. Agustina also detailed several improvement efforts already underway, ranging from data management to financial mechanisms. She confirmed discussing all these matters with the KPK leadership. “Among the ten points, for example, is the issue of data, which we are currently fixing. Also, improvements to the payment mechanism. Coincidentally, we are all from the State College of Accountancy, so we had a warm discussion about that—how to improve it and how to prevent the leakages that have been occurring,” she said. “We created a simulation. Those were some of the things we discussed. There are certainly other matters we talked about as well. That was our agenda for today,” she concluded. For context, the KPK conducted a review and monitoring of the Free Nutritious Meals programme and found several crucial points needing rectification regarding its governance. The findings were detailed by the KPK’s Monitoring Directorate, which explained that the massive scale of the programme and its budget had not been matched by an adequate regulatory framework, governance structure, or oversight mechanism. “This creates risks of accountability failures, conflicts of interest, inefficiency, and potential corruption in the programme’s implementation,” the directorate stated. The KPK’s findings included inadequate implementing regulations, risks of bureaucratic rent-seeking in the government assistance mechanism, a centralised approach that sidelines local governments, high potential for conflicts of interest in partner selection, weak transparency and accountability, kitchens not meeting technical standards leading to food poisoning cases, suboptimal food safety oversight, and a lack of success indicators for the programme. The KPK subsequently issued recommendations including drafting a comprehensive presidential regulation, reviewing the government assistance mechanism, adopting a collaborative and decentralised approach, clarifying standard operating procedures for partner selection, strengthening food safety oversight, and building a standardised financial reporting and verification system.