Confusion mars cash aid disbursement for the poor

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.