Official fired for imposing illegal fees

The Jakarta Post, Medan/Kupang/Aceh

Irregularities have marred the disbursement of the assistance fund for poor families in Medan city with some government officials found to have been imposing illegal fees.

Two cases have been reported since the government raised fuel price on Oct. 1, but only one has been followed up, which concerns the allegation that a local figure in Sei Mati subdistrict extorted Rp 25,000 money from every fund recipient.

Zahradar, a resident of Medan Maimon district, said she was shocked that the person, identified as RN, had collected money from every household receiving the fund.

According to the government scheme, each poor household receives Rp 300,000 each quarter until next year. The fund is being distributed to cushion the impact of the fuel price increases.

Zahradar said the residents had been reluctant to hand over the money but complied when RN threatened to withhold their payments.

Besides Zahradar, other residents who reported the irregularity to the police and the Medan administration were Sirnawaty, Aliusman, Rusmiati, Mahmudi, Syafri, Arbaiah, Kamal and Muriati.

Medan Mayor Abdillah confirmed the report and said that he had dismissed RN, the head of the Lingkungan VII area in Sei Mati subdistrict, Medan city. "I am disappointed in him. We cannot tolerate what he has done so he has been fired," the mayor said.

In Kupang, the capital of East Nusa Tenggara, many of those who received the assistance fund were in fact from the middle-income bracket. They were the families of retired police and military officers, civil servants or state enterprise employees.

Steven, an employee with the Kupang Statistics Agency (BPS), acknowledged that the agency had collected the wrong data so that the fund went to the wrong targets. In Laisana subdistrict, for example, some 100 poor families have not received the fund although they earn below Rp 175,000 a month. Poor families are categorized as earning below Rp 175,000 a month by the statistics agency. According to the statistics agency, the number of poor people in Kupang eligible to receive the assistance fund is 23,067 across 45 subdistricts.

In Aceh, a province with a population of 3.8 million, the Aceh statistics agency is gathering data on the number of people eligible to receive the fund.

"The fund will be disbursed before Idul Fitri in early November," said Aceh's acting governor Azwar Abu Bakar.

However, Azwar reiterated that the victims of the tsunami disaster would not receive the fuel compensation fund as the victims, totaling some 500,000 people, have been receiving assistance of Rp 90,000 per month per person since April.