BGN Spends Rp 1.5 Billion on Shoe Brushes and Polish Purchases
The National Nutrition Agency (BGN) has recorded the procurement of goods in the form of shoe brushes and polish using the 2025 budget. This procurement of goods was publicised in the Inaproc realisation data, the government goods and services procurement website managed by the Government Goods/Services Policy Agency.
In the document downloaded by Tempo, there are at least 12 contract packages for procuring shoe brushes and polish carried out by BGN. This agency, which handles the free nutritious meal (MBG) project, has spent a total of Rp 1.57 billion on purchasing these items.
The contract values for the shoe polish and brush procurement packages range from Rp 17.43 million to Rp 610.2 million. The largest contract package is recorded under the activity name “Shoe Polish” worth Rp 610.2 million.
Meanwhile, the largest shoe brush procurement is Rp 158.62 million. Both packages with the largest contract values for each item were paid to PT Gajah Mitra Paragon through the electronic catalogue mechanism.
Tempo traced the PT Gajah Mitra Paragon catalogue on the Inaproc website. In that supplying company, one unit of Kiwi brand shoe polish is priced at Rp 54,999 to Rp 56,000. As for the price of the shoe polish brush from the same company, it is Rp 50,000.
The prices of shoe polish and brushes sold by several suppliers are notably higher than those sold in local markets. For example, a package of shoe polish along with a brush of a similar brand is only sold for Rp 18,999.
BGN Head Dadan Hindayana has not yet responded to questions sent to his WhatsApp number regarding this procurement of shoe brushes and polish. In previous statements, Dadan said that every purchase of goods and services by his agency is carried out according to real field needs.
He stated that the procurement of goods and services by BGN is part of the operational needs of the MBG project. “Every use of state budget in the BGN environment has gone through planning, budgeting, to supervision mechanisms in accordance with applicable provisions and legislation,” Dadan said in his written statement on Monday, 13 April 2026.
BGN’s goods and services procurement has recently come under public spotlight because it often does not relate to the implementation of nutrition improvement and stunting reduction as per the agency’s duties. Various procurements are also considered wasteful at a time when the Prabowo Subianto administration has enforced budget saving policies since 2025 until now.
One odd project is the procurement of more than 25,000 motorcycle units for MBG kitchen head operations. The contract value for this transportation equipment procurement reaches Rp 1.2 trillion.
BGN’s other projects include the procurement of socks worth Rp 6.9 billion, procurement of hardware and computers Rp 830 billion, even the procurement of event organiser rental services worth Rp 113.9 billion.