Official proposes 'safer' scheme to distribute rice

JAKARTA (JP): An official from the city's Regional Economic Bureau (Binekda) has underlined the importance of ensuring cheap rice supplied through market operations reaches the poor people it is intended for and is not stolen by unscrupulous distributors.

The official, who asked not to be named, said on Friday that the Jakarta Logistics Agency (Dolog Jaya), which handles rice distribution in the city, should therefore change the system it uses to distribute rice supplies in the city.

Binekda is a city administration agency which oversees Dolog and city-owned companies.

He said a change in the system was needed because a number of distributors contracted by Dolog to distribute rice to the city's needy were abusing their position of trust and selling the rice for a higher price in wealthier areas of Jakarta.

"Distributing cheap rice directly to the poor could be better done through cooperation with the heads of neighborhood units because it is they who know who the poor really are," he said.

"That would help us to ensure that the cheap rice reaches those who need it most and is not stolen by distributors," he said.

There are 3,450 rice distributors registered with Dolog in the city, but police data has shown that 142 of these exist on paper only and have been set up for fraudulent purposes.

The logistics agency has set a ceiling price of Rp 2,050 per kilogram of rice but in reality the commodity is currently being sold for prices in the region of Rp 3,000 per kilogram.

Commenting on the existence of bogus distribution companies, the Binekda official said that before entering into cooperative agreements, Dolog usually attempted to check applicants credentials.

"Dolog can check whether distributors that apply have warehouses and kiosks in which to store rice. If they don't, it is possible they are actually fronts for price speculators," he said.

Binekda's suggested changes to the distribution system received the support of Lukman Mokoginta from the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) faction in the city council, who said that involving neighborhood heads was sensible because they were well aware of the state of people's welfare in their areas.

However, Lukman said the administration should be selective and not hold market operations in all neighborhoods.

"The administration already has data on poor and underdeveloped areas in the city and should use this information to target its market operations and make them more effective," he said.

He also said that Dolog should immediately end cooperation with fraudulent distributors.

"I believe the practice has been going on for a long time and that Dolog should have had detected its existence before now. So it's not unreasonable to suspect that Dolog officials are in on the scam," he said. (ind)