Graft slows disbursement of fuel allowances

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.