President orders aides to improve aid distribution

JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie ordered Cabinet ministers on Monday to improve and accelerate the distribution of the much- criticized social safety net program.

He said transparent management was needed to maintain people's trust in the program.

"The President has asked us to overcome obstacles within the program," Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare and Poverty Alleviation Haryono Suyono said after meeting with Habibie at the Merdeka Palace.

Haryono said the President summoned him along with State Minister of National Development Planning Boediono, after reading reports of alleged irregularities in the program including problems in the disbursement of the funds for its intended recipients.

The President also ordered ministers to complete negotiations with the World Bank and formulate improved plans for the forthcoming fiscal year, which begins in April.

"On Wednesday we will hold a meeting with the World Bank to complete the draft plan for next year," said Haryono.

The government has proposed the House of Representatives set aside Rp 20 trillion from the 1999/2000 state budget for the safety net funds, up from Rp 17.79 trillion allocated for the current fiscal year ending on March 31.

According to Haryono, for the current fiscal year the government allocated Rp 1.5 trillion for the education sector, Rp 1 trillion for labor intensive projects and Rp 1.7 trillion for rural development.

Haryono revealed the government would lift its earlier decision to require aid recipients to show their identity cards before receiving funds. He said many of the needy had been unable to partake in the program because they did not have ID cards.

"With a guarantee from their neighbors they can also receive (monies from) the fund," Haryono noted.

Poor people from several districts in Jakarta, grouped in the Urban Poor Consortium, have staged several demonstrations recently, urging greater transparency in the program.

Coordinator of the group Wardah Hafidz said the poor could not afford identification cards because of the high, unofficial fees involved.

The World Bank reportedly has threatened to suspend the disbursement of its loan for the program due to allegations of poor and corrupt management. Both Boediono and Haryono said the bank had denied such reports.

Separately, Teten Masduki, the coordinator of corruption watchdog Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), told The Jakarta Post that the chief problem of the social safety net program was the government's failure to prepare an in-depth study on the impact of the worsening economic turmoil.

"Lack of information about the condition of people here and bad planning has resulted in partial and slow absorption of the social safety net fund," Teten said.

The ICW has called on the World Bank to stop channeling funds for the program until the government proves it can systematically implement the program.

It is hard for non-government organizations to monitor the safety net program without being involved in the planning, he added. (prb/edt)