Palace Targets One-Month Overhaul of Free Nutritious Meals Programme Governance

State Secretary Minister Prasetyo Hadi has stated that the target for improving the governance of the Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) Programme will be completed within one month. “We are targeting an initial one month for this to be finished, but of course there are dynamics involved, so the first thing we emphasised is that what is already running must keep running, there must be no disruption. Everything will be reviewed, not just the motorbike issue, other aspects will all be examined,” he said at the Coordinating Ministry for Food office in Jakarta on Thursday. Prasetyo affirmed that one direction of the governance improvement involves the closure of Nutritional Fulfilment Service Units (SPPG) that do not comply with standard operating procedures (SOP) or if there is an excess of MBG kitchens within a single area. “The direction is certainly towards that (closure), but we cannot say today whether they will be closed or not. As it is being reorganised, we are reviewing, we are inventorying what the conditions are like. So, we cannot immediately draw conclusions just by referring to figures. The conditions are certainly different in each case,” he said. He stressed that the establishment of all SPPGs must comply with the SOP. The affiliation of SPPG owners with particular political parties also cannot be linked to the governance of the MBG programme, because everyone has the right to own an SPPG as long as it is operated according to the established standards. “Including if, pardon me, the names of SPPG owners are mentioned. Basically, it is not about who the owner is, but more that what is not allowed is violating the rules of the game or violating the SOPs that have been set,” he concluded.