Officials' integrity in distributing aid doubted
JAKARTA (JP): Only two days after the launching of a new aid package for poor villages, a senior official said he has doubts that the money will reach their intended recipients intact.
The Rp 20 million (US$9500) packets are being distributed to more than 20,000 villages which qualify under the presidential aid program for backward villages, which was officially launched on April 1.
"They'll be lucky to receive Rp 18 million," State Minister of Administrative Reform T.B. Silalahi was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying on Saturday.
"I have my doubts about the integrity of the officials handling the package, their lack of consciousness and their poor attitude about being good public servants," Silalahi said.
He was speaking in Jayapura, capital of Irian Jaya, where he presented the fund for a number of projects to be handled by the province in the 1994/95 fiscal year.
"The money is bound to be reduced by a hefty amount before it reaches the villagers," he said.
He said the government has estimated that by the time the money reaches the villages, the package may have been cut to Rp 18 million in order to pay for overhead costs.
The aid scheme is part of the government's campaign to eradicate poverty in the Sixth Five-Year Plan (Repelita VI), which also got underway on April 1.
An official survey found that 25.9 million people, or nearly 14 percent of Indonesia's total population, still live below the poverty line as determined by a minimum daily calorie intake of 2,100. In terms of monthly expenses, this comes to Rp 27,905 per person in urban areas and Rp 18,244 in rural areas.
The National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), which oversees the new aid package, has insisted that the money should remain intact when it reaches the recipients and that any overhead costs incurred in channeling the funds should be taken out of the local administration's coffers.
Cooperatives
The packages would be distributed to local organizations, formal or informal, such as cooperatives or neighborhood groups. The money is intended as a seed capital for whatever activities these groups intend to organize, including loan schemes, but it is hoped that the fund will grow over time.
Silalahi said the aid package is intended to help develop the economy of the backward villages and improve the incomes of the inhabitants.
"I appeal to all officials involved in distributing the package to put the people's interest first so that the money will arrive intact, or if it must be reduced, it should fall within normal levels," he said.
Much depends therefore on the mentality of the officials, he added.
President Soeharto, in a message to local governments at the launching of the new Five Year Plan on Thursday, said the integrity of the government now depends more on their records because they have been given greater autonomy in administering their respective regions. (emb)