BGN Investigates Free Nutritious Meal Point Sale Fraud
Jakarta — Indonesia’s National Nutrition Agency (BGN) continues investigating cases of fraud involving the sale of service points in the Nutrition Service Fulfilment Unit (SPPG) or Free Nutritious Meal Programme (MBG) kitchen, which has become increasingly prevalent among individuals impersonating the agency.
“In my view, there must be an investigation based on facts,” said Tigor Pangaribuan, Deputy for Systems and Governance at BGN, when contacted via short message in Jakarta on Tuesday.
He urged members of the public who have been tempted by offers to buy and sell SPPG points to immediately report the matter to the Indonesian Nutrition Complaints Centre (SAGI) Call Centre 127 so that investigations and follow-up action can be carried out promptly.
BGN Head Dadan Hindayana also urged the public to be cautious of business offers made in the name of the MBG Programme and demanding payment or compensation in any form.
“For members of the public, always be careful and cautious with various business offers, including offers to participate in the MBG Programme,” said Dadan. “If the person is known with a clear address, they will be processed according to procedure. If it is clearly fraud, it will be reported through legal channels,” he added.
BGN has discovered that fraud impersonating the national nutrition quality improvement priority programme is becoming widespread, with various modus operandi. One method, as explained by BGN Vice Head Sony Sanjaya, involves tempting people to buy and sell SPPG points, with scammers demanding certain fees.
“The system has now been closed, therefore, beware of people saying you can still register because they can drop (assign) it directly to you. I once received a video of someone distributing information about sale and purchase points for 200 million rupiah. So I checked the ID directly, dropped it (cancelled it) so that people who had already paid would know to be cautious,” said Sony.
The latest suspected fraud case impersonating the MBG Programme was carried out by a woman from Pondok Permata Housing, Babelan District, Bekasi, West Java. The defrauded victims reportedly deposited tens of millions of rupiah. The perpetrator’s modus operandi involved tempting people to open an SPPG with profits many times over.