'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)