Deep mistrust breeds chaotic relief effort

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Deep mistrust among local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and foreign aid agencies of the government-sanctioned National Relief Committee is to blame for the chaotic nature of the relief operation on the west coast of Aceh, a prominent activist says.

National coordinator for the Jakarta-based Humanitarian Emergency Commission, Teten Masduki, said on Friday that a lack of coordination in the delivery of aid -- which had resulted in the chaos -- was the result of the fact that most local NGOs and foreign aid agencies were reluctant to seek assistance from government agencies.

"The NGOs and foreign aid agencies do not have any confidence that their aid will reach the tsunami victims if they hand it to government aid workers for delivery," Teten told reporters on the sidelines of a discussion held by Radio 68H here.

Teten, who is also a prominent anticorruption campaigner, said that the government team lacked the resources to carry out a full-fledged humanitarian operation.

A report by a 34-member inter-agency team, including representatives of the Indonesian government, the U.S. military and UN agencies, said that the relief effort on the west coast of Aceh was chaotic.

The report cited "the continued absence of a systematic response to the multiple needs of the population" and said the provision of health services lacked coordination and that information was fragmented.

Teten added that the absence of proper accounting as regards how much aid had been distributed and how many survivors had registered as recipients, as well as overambitious work plans, had also contributed to the mess.

"We were once told that a team from the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Relief Committee had sent aid to the same area twice even though it was already stuffed with aid. It is such a waste," he said.

Teten said that while some chaos could be expected for up to three months, there seemed to be no improvements taking place in the relief operation as reflected in the day-to-day activities of government-assigned aid workers.

Local NGOs and foreign aid agencies in the field have been reluctant to work with government-sanctioned teams out of concern that the aid would not reach the tsunami victims in time or would be used by the security authorities as a means of tightening their grip on the Acehnese.

Before the tsunami washed away a large part of coastal Aceh, its population had been stuck in the middle of a decades-long armed conflict between the TNI and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist group.

Commenting on the revelation by Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab that malfeasance had occurred in the management of public donations, Teten said that this had resulted from the absence of standardized monitoring procedures for the disbursement of funds.

Separately, Center for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS) analyst Indra J. Piliang said that it was high time for accountancy firms, the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) and provincial audit agencies (BPKP) to start scrutinizing how the funds donated by the public had been spent as part of the government-sponsored relief operation.

"This would be of great benefit to the putting in place of safeguards so that future malfeasance can be avoided," he told The Jakarta Post.