Deep mistrust breeds chaotic relief effort

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.