Govt dismisses reports of social safety net fund misuse

Govt dismisses reports of social safety net fund misuse

JAKARTA (JP): Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare and
Poverty Eradication Haryono Suyono dismissed on Friday reports of
alleged misuse of Rp 8 trillion (US$890 million) of social safety
net funds, arguing it was only a matter of "imbalance between
supply and demand".

Haryono said the only problem facing the government was that
there were more poor people than could be covered by the money
allocated for the 1998/1999 fiscal year.

"It is not a matter of (the money being given to) the wrong
targets, but not all of the targeted poor people can be helped,"
Haryono said after attending a meeting of the Council for
Enforcing Security and Law at the State Guest House chaired by
President B.J. Habibie.

Gunawan Sumodiningrat, deputy head of the National Development
Planning Agency (Bappenas), revealed in a seminar on Thursday
that at least Rp 8 trillion of the total Rp 17.9 trillion social
safety net funds for the 1998/1999 fiscal year had failed to
reach its intended targets, namely laid-off workers and people
facing food shortages.

Bappenas' deputy head of regional affairs, Herman Haeruman,
said only about Rp 9 trillion of the funds had been properly
channeled to provide subsidized rice for the poor, and to
subsidize agriculture, health care and education.

The World Bank has told Bappenas to stop using the funds for
labor-intensive projects and poverty alleviation programs, said
Herman.

The World Bank has delayed the payment of a US$600 million
loan to Indonesia, scheduled to be disbursed on March 31, because
the government failed to provide a reliable system to monitor the
allocation of the money for its poverty-alleviation program.

Opposition parties and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
alleged the government had used the money to ensure votes.

The World Bank has pledged Indonesia $4.5 billion as part of a
wider bailout package led by the International Monetary Fund
begun in 1997. It increased the pledge to $5.5 billion last year,
but so far has yet to disburse even half of that amount.

"Now we are still negotiating with the World Bank, the Asian
Development Bank, that (the program) can be implemented more
appropriately next year," Haryono said.

Data

However, he acknowledged the government did not have
comprehensive data on needy people before distributing the fund,
and that it was therefore possible the money did not reach the
most impoverished people.

"The data is ... not specifically prepared for the social
safety net program," Haryono conceded.

On the same day, State Minister of National Development
Planning Boediono said the government would not stop the program
as it would worsen people's suffering.

"People will suffer more if it is stopped," said Boediono.

Boediono, also the Bappenas head, expressed his readiness to
involve more NGOs and students in the program in order to help
the government reach its objectives.

This offer, however, was criticized by outspoken economist Sri
Mulyani as a half-hearted gesture. She also pointed out that the
ruling Golkar party had, through the bureaucracy, claimed the
money belonged to the party.

Wardah Hafidz, coordinator of Urban Poor Consortium (UPC),
criticized Bappenas for holding only two workshops, attended by
300 people, for the fund disbursement.

"How can only 300 participants speak on behalf of the people,
when the problem is so complex?" she was quoted by Antara as
saying.

About 1,000 protesters from the City Poor People's Party
marched to Bappenas on Thursday, demanding that the government
stop the program because it only increased the burden on people.

They warned the World Bank would extend the money as a loan,
not a donation, and that future generations would bear the burden
of repaying those debts.

Meanwhile in Maumere regency, East Nusa Tenggara, a local
health ministry official has allegedly deposited at least Rp 420
million of the social safety net fund allocated to the ministry
to take advantage of the bank's lucrative interest rate.

Iskandar, however, insisted he put the money in the BRI bank
to enable the office to quickly channel the fund to remote areas.

In Jakarta, Bambang Shergi Laksmono, a sociologist at the
University of Indonesia, claimed that Jakarta city officials
avoided poor people because they did not trust their ability to
repay the safety net loans.

"The officials are afraid of failure if their clients (fund
recipients) do not return the loan, and therefore they prioritize
people who have permanent jobs," Bambang said in his doctoral
dissertation.

Bambang defended his dissertation titled "Understanding the
Access Problem in the Poverty Alleviation Program" in a ceremony
at the university campus in Depok, West Java.

His study attempted to prove that government officials thought
more about their own careers than serving the public interest.
Their main concern was ensuring that recipients of the fund repay
debts on time.

The officials had apparently also complained because they were
given only two weeks to complete their tasks.

"Generally, sub-district officials must select, within two
weeks, the poorest groups as the recipients of Rp 20 million fund
allocated for each subdistrict," Antara quoted him as saying.
(prb/yac)