Over 4 million students to benefit from compensation funds

Debbie A. Lubis and Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

About 4.1 million elementary and high school students are expected to receive a total of Rp 968.8 billion saved from the government's fuel subsidy cuts, an official says.

The government removed fuel subsidies on Jan. 1 -- which experts charged only benefited the well off -- and cushioned the impact on the poor by raising subsidies in other sectors, including education, health and transportation.

The government has allocated Rp 1.395 trillion for education, of which Rp 968.8 billion is earmarked to support elementary and high school students from poor families.

Indra Djati Sidi, the National Education Ministry's director general of primary and secondary education, said Friday that his office would maintain its distribution channels for the money.

The channels had prevented leakages in the disbursement of compensation funds for primary and secondary school students.

Indra said that based on last year's experience, the compensation funds would be received safely by the recipients if they were distributed through state post company PT Pos Indonesia.

"I am not saying there were no leakages but we found only a little leakage from last year's programs because bureaucrats from central government to the regency level do not hold the funds. They just decide who receives the funds," he said.

Indra would not say how much money was stolen.

He said the money was directly transferred from the Ministry of Finance to PT Pos headquarters, who in turn distributed it to the company's branches throughout Indonesia.

Separately, A. Anshari Ritonga, director general for budget at the Ministry of Finance, said it had disbursed a total of Rp 1.15 trillion for the education ministry.

Indra said that he could guarantee the money for primary and secondary education would be wisely used as the process of selection of the fund recipients also involved the Education Committee and school boards at the regional and municipal levels.

"Both institutions comprise public figures, local non- governmental organizations, and community leaders."

Indra said students in remote villages far from post offices could ask school headmasters or school board members to organize the fund transfer.