Bogor DPRD Demands Revision of Social Assistance Restriction Policy
The Bogor City Regional People’s Representative Council (DPRD) held a working meeting with the Regional Secretary and related agencies on Wednesday, 24 June 2026, in response to controversy over a circular restricting social assistance (bansos) sourced from the Regional Budget (APBD). The DPRD firmly urged the Bogor City Government to immediately revoke or revise the regulation, arguing it could potentially strip impoverished residents of their rights to aid.
Deputy Speaker II of the Bogor DPRD, Zenal Abidin, stressed that clarity regarding the 2025 beneficiary restrictions must be resolved swiftly to prevent public unrest. ‘Whatever term the Regional Secretary uses, based on the results of the meeting with Commission I, Commission IV, and the leadership coordinator, we are asking for the rule to be revoked or revised. We are taking this step for the benefit of the community,’ Zenal stated. He noted that since the regulation is merely a Circular Letter, it is highly feasible to replace it with a new rule that is more pro-people. A key point of discussion was the demand to revoke the circular and improve the accuracy of the Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS/DTSN) at the Social Agency before upgrading it to a Mayor’s Regulation (Perwali).
Beyond the form of the regulation, the council also criticised the use of the decile ranking system as a reference, stating that the current data does not reflect factual conditions on the ground. Deputy Chair of Commission I, Said Muhammad Mohan, argued that the use of decile rankings for locally funded aid must be reviewed. He cited a clarification from the Minister of Social Affairs that regional governments are not strictly bound by decile rankings when distributing local aid. ‘Currently, the decile data is not clean. Many poor residents are placed in high deciles (6–10), while some wealthy individuals are in low deciles. This unclean data being used as a reference is one of the bases for our insistence that the Regional Secretary revoke this circular immediately,’ Mohan asserted.
Responding to the criticism, Head of the Bogor City Social Agency, Atep, clarified the origins of the circular. He explained that it stemmed from the mass deactivation of National Health Insurance (PBI-JK) participants by the Ministry of Social Affairs in June 2025, which affected approximately 11 million people nationwide. The Bogor City Government then took the initiative to accommodate affected residents, particularly those with chronic illnesses, through a PBI-APBD reactivation programme. However, a drafting error occurred in the Regional Secretary’s circular. ‘The circular was actually issued specifically to regulate the PBI-APBD reactivation programme. However, a drafting error led to multiple interpretations by other Regional Apparatus Organisations (OPD), who saw it as a universal legal umbrella for all types of social assistance,’ Atep revealed. This confusion caused the distribution of other social aid, such as that managed by the People’s Welfare Bureau, to stall as agency heads hesitated to execute APBD budgets.
Atep confirmed that the polemic has been resolved following the working meeting with the DPRD. The city government, together with the Regional Secretary, has committed to immediately revising the wording of the circular. The revision will focus on three main points: explicitly stating that the regulation applies only to the PBI-APBD health insurance programme; removing ambiguous clauses that caused other OPDs to doubt disbursing poverty programme budgets; and issuing a clear directive for all OPDs to immediately integrate and distribute poverty reduction programmes sourced from the 2026 APBD without hesitation. Furthermore, the Bogor City Government is currently drafting a Mayor’s Regulation to serve as a long-term legal framework for poverty alleviation, ensuring future aid distribution is targeted, accountable, and equitable.