NGOs welcome to monitor rice program: Widjanarko

The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) officially launched the so- called "rice for the poor" program last week. Under the Rp 4.67 trillion (US$449 million) program, Bulog will provide 2.35 million tons of rice to around 9.79 million poor families across the country. Bulog Chief Widjanarko Puspoyo talked about the program and the government's rice policy in an interview with The Jakarta Post's Adianto P. Simamora.

Question: What is the concept behind the new program?

Answer : Basically, the concept of the rice for the poor program is the same as for the previous special market operation program (OPK), which was first implemented in 1998 in the wake of the economic crisis to help poor families.

But in the rice for the poor program, Bulog wants to sharpen the targeted group.

We want to ensure that the rice really goes to the intended poor families across the country.

Why did you change the name of the program?

Because our previous experience showed that the OPK program was not effective in helping poor families because many of them did not actually receive the rice.

The fact is that much of the (subsidized) rice went to people who were not entitled to receive it.

How did you obtain the names of the recipients?

We collected data from the National Family Planning Coordinating Board (BKKBN). According to the BKKBN's data, there are about 14.7 million poor families across the country but the government can only cover around 9.79 million this year.

Each local administration (from subdistrict level to provincial level) also provided data about the population of poor families in their respective areas.

Bulog has issued coupons to the poor families included in the program. With the coupon, the poor families are entitled to buy 20 kilogram of rice per month at only Rp 1,000.

Who will monitor the program?

There is a special monitoring team, consisting of officials from various ministries and Bulog.

They will intensively monitor the program and deliver a progress report every three months.

However, for day-to-day monitoring, we invite all social groups, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), university student groups and also the press to participate.

I don't want to rely solely on my staff for the monitoring.

Many people have voiced concerns about the possibility of wrongdoing on the part of officials.

We are committed to improving the supervision aspect.

We will take stern actions against officials who abuse the program. I will report them to the police and fire them.

That's why I have asked all parties to help monitor the distribution. Please, report it to me if there is any malpractice in the implementation of the program.

What is the main role of Bulog in this program?

Bulog will only deliver the rice from logistics depots to each district level. That's our main job.

Where will the funding come from?

Bulog will use the social compensation fund of about Rp 500 billion while the remainder will come from the government subsidy allocated in the 2002 state budget.

The fee for transportation from warehouse to each district level will be taken from the 2002 state budget. But from the subdistrict level to the recipients it will be covered by the respective local administration budget.

The price of rice has increased by around 30 percent lately. Why?

Basically, the current rise in the price of rice is due to the liberalization policy. The price of rice on the international market is now increasing. Indonesia, meanwhile, did not have enough supply to meet domestic demand.

The shortage of domestic supply was then replaced by imported- rice with higher prices.

The government can no longer intervene in the market. And the government does not even know the number of rice importers or the quality of the imported rice.

Can Bulog play a role to curb the price increase?

I first want to make a clarification about the position of the so-called new Bulog. We are now very different from the previous Bulog.

There has been a misunderstanding about the new Bulog. Many experts and officials used to blame Bulog for increases in the price of rice.

Bulog no longer has the authority to stabilize the price of rice because we can't intervene in the domestic market.

The price of rice is now mainly dependent on the market mechanism.

We (Bulog) lost our monopoly to import and distribute rice in 1998 in an agreement reached between the former president B.J. Habibie and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Since that time, traders have been allowed to freely import rice without having to pay (import) duty or seek a license from the government.

We haven't imported rice since 1998.

Bulog is also charged with helping to stabilize the domestic price of unhusked price. But we have to pay commercial interest of about 21.5 percent to the banks (for the funding of the program).

Since 1998, Bulog has not received subsidy funds from the government to buy unhusked rice from farmers.

What should the government do to halt the increase in the rice price?

That is the problem now... I have asked the government to re- evaluate the national rice policy.

The current problem emerged because of the liberalization of the rice sector, in which there is no longer a special body that controls the domestic price.

I explained this situation to President Megawati Soekarnoputri last Friday.

What was Megawati's response?

Megawati asked me (Bulog) to immediately draft a (new) national rice policy.

She also asked me to invite related ministers to discuss the draft.

Can you tell us about the content of the draft?

The most important thing is that the draft does not mean to return monopoly rights back to Bulog. I don't want Bulog to monopolize the importation and distribution of rice but I also don't want to leave it all to the private sector.

We need a special body to control the price of rice.

This is the right moment to re-evaluate and re-position the government's policy on rice.