City administration told to withdraw 'Dekel' funds

City administration told to withdraw 'Dekel' funds

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The city administration has been urged to withdraw Rp 130 billion
of aid funds for 167 subdistricts amid widespread corruption by
subdistrict officials and members of the subdistrict
representatives (Dekel).

"What happened in Serdang subdistrict is only one of many
examples of the corruption of aid funds for subdistricts,"
Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta) chairman Azas Tigor Nainggolan
told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Tigor referred to the misuse of the Subdistrict Community
Empowerment Fund (PPMK) by Agus Sugito, Dekel chairman in Serdang
subdistrict, Central Jakarta who is now being detained by the
police.

Sugito was accused of corrupting Rp 700 million of PPMK money,
which he allegedly used to build a house for his mistress and on
overseas travel.

The other irregularities include the alleged misuse of Rp 90
million by Kelapa Dua subdistrict council chief, who used the
money to repair his home, and in Pluit, North Jakarta, where the
money was used to repair subdistrict office buildings.

The PPMK program was launched in 2001 for only 25 subdistricts
with funds totaling around Rp 2 billion. In 2002, all
subdistricts received the funds, with each receiving Rp 250
million in aid per year.

In 2003, the amount of money was increased to Rp 500 million
per subdistrict, although there were many reports about the
misuse of the money by subdistrict representatives.

Similar calls came from Tubagus Haryo Karbiyanto, the head of
urban affairs division at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH).
He stressed the need to stop the program temporarily until the
city administration found a better mechanism to disburse money to
the poor in the subdistricts.

He shared Tigor's idea that unspent money be withdrawn while
the distributed funds were audited.

Tubagus said the program was ridden with corruption as
disbursement of the money by Dekel was not transparent in that
only Dekel members and officials in the subdistricts knew how the
money was spent or otherwise.

Meanwhile, Governor Sutiyoso said he would go ahead with the
aid program, saying that in general the money was useful to the
poor as it was used to improve small businesses.

"I will not stop the program only because of one or two
irregularities," Sutiyoso said, asking the people to take part in
supervising the use of the aid funds.

Tigor, however, stressed the need to withdraw and temporarily
stop the aid program. He said a transparent evaluation was needed
to see whether the program was effective in empowering the poor.

Tigor said that by withdrawing all the money from the
subdistricts, the city administration would know whether the
money was used properly or not by the Dekel members.

"Based on my observations, I can say that the majority of the
money did not reach the poor people as it is was only distributed
among the elite of the subdistricts or among the families of
Dekel members."