Official fired for imposing illegal fees
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.