Funds for poverty alleviation cut and misused

Funds for poverty alleviation cut and misused

JAKARTA (JP): Many local administration officials have misused
and deducted the funds allocated for the alleviation of poverty
in villages even though they have received supervision fees, an
official of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas)
said.

The head of Bappenas's bureau for regency and village
development, Gunawan Sumodiningrat, told The Jakarta Post and
Kompas yesterday that the deduction of poverty alleviation funds,
allocated under the Presidential Aid Program (IDT), was done by
district and village administrators.

"The deduction of the IDT funds range from 10 to 15 percent,"
he said.

Under the IDT program, villages, where the poor make up the
majority of population, receive a fund of Rp 20 million
(US$9,220.84) for poverty alleviation projects.

"According to reports from our field monitoring, the deduction
happened in several places in Palembang, South Sumatra and in
Pandeglang, West Java," Gunawan said.

He said local administration officials were not supposed to
take any money from the IDT funds because the government
allocated supervision funds to the officials from the provincial
to village level.

He said for an official at the provincial level, the
government provided Rp 20,000 per village, at the regency level
Rp 100,000 per village, at the district level Rp 500,000 per
village and at the village level Rp 600,000.

Allocation

Gunawan said the Rp 20 million aid can not be allocated to
construct infrastructure facilities as happened in some places.
Funds for infrastructure construction will be allocated under
different programs, not under the IDT program.

Gunawan said there is also misunderstanding about the IDT
program among officials in several places.

There are people who assume that the IDT funds are extra money
given by the government to them and they can spend it without
having to report on spending, he said.

Gunawan said the IDT program is a modification of previous
development programs that the government has introduced in the
past.

The problem is that only three months after President Soeharto
introduced it to his cabinet in December 1993 it was implemented,
leaving no time for adjustment.

The IDT program was launched on April 1 this year at the
beginning of the second long-term development plan.

It is part of the government's effort to lift the standard of
living for the 27 million Indonesians who still live below the
poverty line. A total of 20,633 villages have qualified for the
funds.

Gunawan said the government has projected that the program
would reduce poverty in the country significantly. "But the
target of poverty reduction can not be specifically determined
because the definition of poverty is conditional," Gunawan said,
adding that the criterion for poverty might change with time and
place. (02)