New Faces Among BGN Officials as Agency Cleans Up Free Nutritious Meal Programme

The National Nutrition Agency (BGN) has inaugurated five new officials to replace their predecessors. The new appointments are expected to strengthen the agency’s structure amid an ongoing clean-up of the Free Nutritious Meal (MBG) programme. The new officials range from the Chief Secretary to the Deputy for Monitoring and Supervision. BGN Deputy Heads Agustina Arumsari and Trenggono introduced the five officials at a press conference at the BGN office in Central Jakarta on Tuesday (21/7/2026). The officials introduced are: 1. Lili Khamiliyah as Chief Secretary; 2. Prima Yosephine Berliana Tumiur Hutapea as Deputy for Systems and Governance; 3. Zainuri as Deputy for Provision and Distribution; 4. Mariman Darto as Deputy for Promotion and Cooperation; 5. Ketut Sumedana as Deputy for Monitoring and Supervision. Agustina stated that human resources are a crucial element of the organisation for the Free Nutritious Meal programme. These new BGN officials were appointed based on a Presidential Decree (Keppres) from Prabowo Subianto. “Yesterday afternoon we received the Keppres appointing these individuals as high-ranking middle officials. We need a team to improve BGN and the free nutritious meal programme,” she said. Among the new officials is a familiar name, Ketut Sumedana, the former Head of the Attorney General’s Office Public Relations Centre. Agustina explained that Ketut has an impressive track record, having served in the prosecutor’s office for 28 years and holding a doctorate in law. “I think he is not a stranger, as he was the Head of Public Relations for a long time. Please, Dr Ketut Sumedana, SH, MH. He used to organise press conferences at the Attorney General’s Office,” Agustina said. “For instance, if there are incidents like food poisoning, he will be the one to look into it directly, and he has a network across Indonesia from his time at the Attorney General’s Office,” she continued. Agustina also mentioned that Ketut’s experience in law enforcement oversight is highly needed. He will also be tasked with identifying potential irregularities and ensuring regulatory compliance. “And of course, this includes monitoring and evaluating the entire MBG programme, including standard operating procedures. The division of tasks is roughly like this: who sets the standards for achieving programme targeting accuracy and so on, the SOPs,” she explained. BGN is currently undertaking a total overhaul of the MBG programme’s governance. During the evaluation process, Agustina revealed findings of issues in the field, such as one school being served by two kitchens or Nutrition Fulfilment Service Units (SPPG). “For example, we found a school that was being served by two different SPPGs. When that data was cross-referenced with the Dapodik data, we found discrepancies that we are currently investigating further,” Agustina said. Such findings are one of the reasons why a thorough data validation process is necessary. Once all data is truly clean and integrated, budget planning will also become more accurate. Agustina acknowledged that the current system is not yet fully integrated. Therefore, BGN intends to improve the system so that information can be accessed directly. “One of the things we will push for is the integration between the Dapodik data and the MBG system, so that the number of child beneficiaries, which schools receive MBG, the distribution of beneficiaries, and programme implementation monitoring can be known in real-time,” she explained. According to her, accurate data is crucial to ensure certainty, transparency, and accountability in programme implementation. She stated that a key point from the evaluation results is the need to open a wider space for transparency to the public through clearly monitorable data. “I think this is very important and will be one of our main focuses going forward,” she stressed.