Confusion mars cash aid disbursement for the poor
The Jakarta Post, Jayapura/Samarinda/Kupang
Confusion has marred the disbursement of fuel compensation funds on Tuesday with a postgraduate student in Jayapura being listed as a fund recipient, while in Surakarta, the fund disbursement almost turned into a brawl.
The chaos in Jayapura was spotted by journalists covering visit by Minister of Environment Rachmat Witoelar. Journalists were stunned to see Elis Kogoya, 33, a postgraduate student at Economic Faculty at the reputable Cendrawasih University, queuing for the handout. Confronted by journalists, Elis admitted that he had registered for the assistance and could not refuse when the government declared him eligible to receive the money.
The assistance was part of fuel compensation funds disbursed to poor people to cushion the impact of the fuel price hike, announced by the government on Saturday. Those who are eligible to receive the assistance are those living on or below the poverty line, which is determined to be those with an individual monthly income of less than Rp 175,000 (US$17.50). Each of the estimated 15.6 million poor families across the nation, including Elis, will receive Rp 300,000 in compensation funds each quarter over the next year.
Responding to the journalist's findings, the chief of the Papua Statistics Office Djarot Soetamto acknowledged that his office might have made mistakes in gathering data on poor people. He said his office would reexamine the data, and after verification, would revoke any fuel compensation cards from those are not eligible to receive the funds. The office would shift the funds to those who were really in need, he said.
In Jayapura, the capital of Papua province, 14,831 families have been deemed eligible to receive the fuel compensation assistance.
In Surakarta, Central Java, fuel compensation fund disbursements at local post offices almost turned violent after several poor residents launched strong protests against local neighborhood leaders and government officials on why they did not receive fuel compensation cards. They became even more angry on discovering that their neighbors, who were more affluent, had received cards. One among the poor residents was Mardipatmo Rahardjo, a resident of Tipes subdistrict, who has been jobless for three years. In order to cover his daily expenses, Mardipatmo relied on money from his three children, Antara news agency reported on Tuesday.
Responding to Mardipatmo's demand, a local government official promised that Mardipatmo would receive the assistance in the next stage disbursement of fund to be held in the next quarter of this year.
In Kupang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara, the Statistics Office rejected applications from 937 families who wanted to be declared poor. The 937 families were part of some 24,000 families filing applications for fuel compensation assistance, said Lodewyck Lado, the chief of the Kupang statistics body. The 937 families were not poor as their monthly incomes were found to have exceeded Rp 175,000 a month, said Lado.