Grant for education disbursed with tight screen

Debbie A. Lubis, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Netherlands government disbursed on Thursday the second phase of the School Improvement Grants Program (SIGP) worth 29 million Euros (US$28.5 million) in total for poor schools across the country.

The money has been disbursed with heavy conditions and will be monitored to ensure the funds are not stolen by corrupt officials.

Indra Djati Sidi, the director general of primary and secondary education at the Ministry of National Education, said the funds would be distributed to 2,875 elementary and junior high schools in 60 regencies.

"We hope that the 35 regencies from middle and eastern areas of the country can benefit from this program," he said at the signing of the grant agreement.

Indra said the funds were given to 41 regencies outside Java. The fund distribution is administered by the World Bank and overseen by the Central Independent Monitoring Unit managed by the British Council and its network.

"We don't want the selection of fund recipients to be decided under the table so we will involve the public through the Committee Regency to select the fund recipients," he said.

Indra said the program would be subject to public monitoring through news media and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in a bid to ensure that the grants reached their intended targets.

"The name of recipients will be published in national newspapers in November and in local newspapers next January. The schools will receive the funds by February," he said.

The schools should use the funds to renovate classrooms, construct sanitary facilities, repair or purchase furniture, buy schoolbooks, develop libraries and learning materials, train teachers and provide incentives for non-permanent teachers.

Indra said the funds would be suspended or canceled if the schools misused the grants.

He said the funds could not be used as a loan for other parties, kept in the bank to collect interest, transferred to private accounts or used to purchase books that were not related to learning materials or room ornaments.

The schools also could not use the grant to purchase electronic equipment such as TVs or buy gifts for the Committee Regency.

The funds, ranging from Rp 50 to Rp 130 million per school, was entrusted to the school committees.

The committees are required to produce a budget plan for the use of the grants and maintain complete financial and supporting documentation to verify actual activities, including photographic documentation that displayed the school's condition before, during, and after the project.

Netherlands Ambassador to Indonesia Baron Schelto Van Heemstra hoped the program would run as smoothly as the first SIGP two years ago that involved some 4,700 elementary and junior high schools in 75 regencies.

"The program has served as a catalyst for community involvement in schools. The system by which the local government set up a committee responsible for the management and implementation of the grants received by each school appears to have worked well in most schools," he said.

Anshari Ritonga, director general of budgeting at the Ministry of Financial Affairs, said that public control played a significant role in the use of any grant or loan.

He said that inefficient and phony projects had made the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) suspend their aid to Sulawesi and Sumatra.