Data collection blunders galore

Data collection blunders galore

From Media Indonesia

Some of the serious problems in the cash aid distribution to
the poor were widely reported in the media. The question is: Why
were there so many mistakes in preparing the data of the poor
entitled to get cash aid?

If we refer to the system applied by the Central Bureau of
Statistics in which 20 variables were used as criteria to
determine whether a family is extremely poor, nominally poor or
very close to the poverty line, it is unlikely that it would have
created such disorder.

However, the mismanagement was also a result of inaccurate
data given by the respondents. Some families gave false data in
order to look like they were poor enough to receive some
freebies, thus they became eligible for the cash -- Rp 100,000 a
month.

Unfortunately, the government was not quite prepared to
operate the system. As a result, inaccuracy in the implementation
of the program became unavoidable.

NIKEN INDAR MASTRI
Yogyakarta