'Emergency fund only for capital's ID card holders'

'Emergency fund only for capital's ID card holders'

JAKARTA (JP): Governor Sutiyoso on Monday insisted that the Rp
109.52 billion emergency fund is only for Jakarta ID card
holders.

He ordered all the city's 265 subdistrict heads to strictly
follow his guidelines in loaning the aid, locally known as the
social safety net fund, to needy Jakartans.

Speaking to reporters, the governor said that the "rule" was
not set by his administration but by the National Development
Planning Board (Bappenas), which distributed the fund.

"Besides, if the aid money is loaned to those without ID
cards, who should be held accountable for the possible misuse of
the fund?" asked Sutiyoso.

He added that the regulation that fund recipients should be
holders of the capital's ID card was fair enough.

"Please tell me what an exact mechanism for the fund
distribution should be. I think there will always be weaknesses,"
he said.

According to Bambang Sungkono, head of the Jakarta chapter of
the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), loaning aid
money to the jobless or those living below the poverty line who
had no ID cards would not achieve the mission of the program.

The program, he said, is designed to teach the people,
including executives of the Village Resilience Boards (LKMD)
responsible for distributing the money how to handle the
government's money properly and how to make good use of it.

"If tomorrow a branch head loans aid money to a poor man
without an ID card who lives under the bridge or by the river or
railway tracks and the man disappears within two days, who should
be held responsible?" Bambang asked.

Needy residents who have no Jakarta ID cards could still
receive money from the fund under the guarantee of, for example,
a non-government organization, he added.

Bappenas, he said, was also planning to suggest resilience
board heads invite the poor without ID cards to take part in the
local labor-intensive projects in order to let them earn an
income.

"They, for example, could help in cleaning up the roads and
rivers, as well as in the construction of roads and buildings,"
Bambang said.

"They then could be paid daily for their services with the aid
money."

The emergency fund, which is aimed at helping Jakarta poor
residents to cope with the economic crisis, has become a
controversial issue in the past few days due to the improper
distribution of the money.

To avoid bureaucracy and greater possibilities for the aid
money being siphoned off, the fund was handed by Bappenas
straight down to the Village Resilience Boards or LKMDs of the
capital's 265 subdistricts.

But still some of the subdistrict heads have distributed the
fund to their relatives and staff.

Asnawi, the Pegadungan subdistrict head in West Jakarta, told
The Jakarta Post on Monday that he had "mistakenly" loaned four
of his staff Rp 500,000 each.

"But I have promised not to repeat such a mistake," he
admitted.

"I have given my apologies a dozen times to the West Jakarta
mayor. I am so ashamed."

When asked to comment on Asnawi's case, Bambang of Bappenas
said: "If it proves to be true, the subdistrict head could either
be removed from his position or be punished in accordance with
the city's existing regulations." (ylt/ind)