Disbursement of emergency fund delayed again without any reason
Disbursement of emergency fund delayed again without any reason
JAKARTA (JP): The disbursement of an emergency fund amounting
to Rp 109.52 billion, aimed at empowering poor city residents
hard hit by a prolonged economic crisis, is being delayed again
without any clear reason.
Several heads of the Village Resilience Board (LKMD) assigned
to be in charge of channeling the aid said that they had yet to
receive the fund as of Friday, even though the deadline for the
disbursement was set for Jan. 15 at the latest.
LKMD's East Jakarta Pondok Bambu subdistrict head, Marsudi,
said: "The fund actually should have been disbursed in early
January but the deadline was postponed until Jan. 15."
The disbursement was postponed because of discrepancies in its
proposed usage. Instead of planning to use the fund to help the
poor, some board members proposed it be used to purchase various
items, including vehicles, water treatment machines, horses,
uniforms and computers.
"Up to the moment it has not been disbursed, whereas the first
stage of the program should be finished in mid-March.
"The program is scheduled to continue with the second stage,
which was expected to be completed by the end of March," said
Marsudi, reported Antara.
He said it was impossible that the program could be successful
if its time was so short.
The city development planning board's head, Bambang Sungkono,
announced recently that 256 LKMDs throughout the city would be
given part of the fund to help the needy by Jan. 15 at the
latest.
About Rp 106.77 billion of the aid will be channeled directly
to LKMDs through the state's Bank Rakyat Indonesia with the
remainder set aside for management and operational costs.
Councillors and activists had warned against misuse of the
aid, saying that it would be used as money politics because the
board members usually consisted of people close to the government
or the ruling Golkar political grouping.
The program, which is funded by the National Development
Planning Board, is conducted under the auspices of the PDMDKE, a
program designed to help people cope with the worst impacts of
the economic crisis.
Marsudi said that since early January, the board had actually
been ready to start the program, which was expected to involve
1,850 people living below the poverty line and 1,300 people who
were dismissed during the economic crisis.
He said that his board alone would receive Rp 810 million, of
which 65 percent would be lent to small businesspeople and 35
percent to finance small development projects, such as repairing
roads and drains and constructing a small mosque.
Representatives of LKMDs in Kedoya Utara subdistrict, West
Jakarta; Kamal Muara, North Jakarta; and Mampang Prapatan, South
Jakarta, also complained about the delay in the disbursement.
Some city residents contacted last week said that they knew
nothing about the availability of the fund.
A Blue Bird taxi driver, identified only as S.E., said that he
had neither heard about the aid from the head of his neighborhood
nor from the subdistrict head himself -- the people in charge of
informing their subdistricts about the aid.
"How could I not know of this? I definitely would rather leave
this 14-hour job and feed myself on the aid," said S.E., a
resident of the Rawabuaya subdistrict, of East Jakarta, where at
least 15,819 families lived below the poverty line, the second
largest number in the city after West Jakarta.
Mina, a housemaid in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, said that
she would definitely "advise" her jobless husband to inquire
about the aid. (ind/ylt)