Graft slows disbursement of fuel allowances

The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung/Puncak Jaya/Kupang

The greed of corrupt local officials is ensuring needy families throughout the country are missing out on the fuel compensation money.

Hundreds of low-income people in the city of Bandarlampung met with Democratic Party officials on Monday to complain that they were being charged illegal fees to get on the list of eligible families. They also accused neighborhood chiefs of manipulating statistical data to embezzle the funds.

Many of the people from the Sidodadi subdistrict complained that they had not received the allowance. Other reported they had taken the money but were forced to pay "processing fees" to neighborhood chiefs. If they refused to pay the fee, they were told they would not be included on the list of people eligible for the next disbursement, Mulyadi, of Maritim hamlet, said.

City deputy mayor Kherlani admitted that some officials were still "confused" about how they should disburse the fund. He found during a recent inspection that a well-off family in Gedongmeneng subdistrict had received the allowance, while many poor people there missed out.

It the Sukamandi subdistrict, residents complained they were being charged a 10 percent levy of Rp 30,000 a family to receive the money, while in Sukamandi illegal fees were said to range from Rp 10,000 to Rp 50,000 per capita.

Until Monday, according to data from PT Pos Indonesia Lampung operations, only 13 percent or 7,423 households in the city had received the allowance, with only Rp 25.6 billion of the Rp 196.8 billion distributed.

Bandarlampung Police chief Sr. Comr. H.S. Maltha said police were investigating the alleged irregularities in the disbursement.

Meanwhile, in Puncak Jaya, Papua, observers worried that many poor people in outlying areas would miss out on the money because of their remoteness and a lack of government data.

"Even the officials from the statistics agency have not gathered proper data on poor people here," Puncak Jaya Regent Elieser Renmaur said. Population in the large regency is estimated to stand at some 132,000 people.

In Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, councillor David Beko demanded the local statistics body reregister poor families eligible to receive the allowance.

Many poor people had not received the money, which was going into the coffers of the rich, he said.