NasDem Legislator Rejects New Portal for Free Nutritious Meal Monitoring

House of Representatives Commission IX member Irma Suryani Chaniago has responded to the National Nutrition Agency’s plan to prepare a new digital system as a monitoring channel for the implementation of the free nutritious meal project. Irma requested that the BGN cancel the procurement plan for the new portal. “Actually, the BGN already has a nutrition fulfilment service unit review system,” Irma said at the parliamentary complex in Jakarta on Tuesday, 28 July 2026. The NasDem Party politician stated that the existing monitoring system has the same function as the system to be built by the BGN under Sudaryono’s leadership. “The budget must not be wasted,” Irma said. Therefore, she hopes that the available budget will be focused on improving the governance of the free nutritious meal project’s implementation. She also touched on the existence of nutritious meal kitchens that carry out food production and distribution not in accordance with standards. “Kitchens like that should be suspended so that beneficiaries are not disadvantaged,” she said. Previously, BGN Head Sudaryono said his agency would create a new digital system for monitoring the free nutritious meal programme with the aim of allowing parents of student beneficiaries to monitor the menu their children consume. “Parents will later be able to find out which schools receive the service, what menu is served, in which kitchen the food was cooked, and who the responsible kitchen head is,” Sudaryono said on Monday, 27 July 2026. He stated that the creation of this digital monitoring system is an effort towards transparency in the implementation of the free nutritious meal programme. According to him, the previous digital system was mostly done manually. “Information disclosure is not only aimed at providing easy access to the public, but also serves as a joint monitoring instrument,” said the Gerindra Party politician.