Govt program for laid off workers hailed

Govt program for laid off workers hailed

JAKARTA (JP): Observers have applauded the government's
program aimed at helping laid off workers and the poor, but
warned that strong control mechanisms were needed to ensure
nothing goes to waste.

Sociologists Paulus Wilutomo and Wardah Hafidz said the idea
of helping people affected by the crisis was good but needed
careful planning and explicit control mechanisms.

"Donations and financial assistance must be carefully
designed. Otherwise, there could be misappropriation and the aid
could go to the wrong people," Paulus told The Jakarta Post
Saturday.

"The program's management must be open to the public,
especially when it deals with donors' money," Wardah separately
told the Post.

Both Paulus and Wardah were responding to an announcement by
the minister of social services, Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, who
said Friday that the government was working on a plan to develop
both immediate and long-term programs to deal with the social
impact of the monetary crisis.

Hardiyanti said two large private conglomerates had donated Rp
3 billion (US$294,000) each to the program.

She said the program would range from distributing free meals
to laid off workers to finding new jobs for those who have become
unemployed as a result of the economic slump.

Hardiyanti, who is President Soeharto's eldest daughter, said
the program would also include financial assistance for small
Warung Tegal (roadside) food stalls, so people would always be
able to buy cheap meals from such places.

Paulus argued that the program would only be effective if the
free meals for the poor and the financial assistance for small-
scale businesses directly reached the parties in need.

"The government should provide coupons to be used by the poor
to get the meals from appointed food stalls and kiosks," he said.

He, however, added that the coupons should only be given to
people who were really poor and needed the government's help.

"I suggest the government establish committees in neighborhood
units, involving influential people in the neighborhood, to
select the appropriate people," he said.

In the long run, Paulus said, the government should distribute
financial assistance to the small-scale informal sector, which
would absorb a large number of manpower.

"Bank soft loans should not merely be given to a limited
number of conglomerates anymore, but to a large variety of
informal sector businesses," he said.

Wardah said the government's financial assistance program
should not be a top-down policy as it could fail to reach the
people who really need the assistance.

"The government should include activists of non-governmental
organizations and religious groups, as well as social workers,"
she said, "Because they know better than the government who the
eligible recipients are."

Wardah, who is active in various social care programs in the
city, said non-governmental organizations knew about such
programs because they had started similar programs on a smaller
scale.

She added that the involvement of non-governmental
organizations would also help control the program's financial
management.

"Without a proper control mechanism, the project would only
act as a charity program and provide legitimacy to the
government's claim that it has jobs to do and cares for the poor
and for laid off workers," she said. (imn)