Quality of rice aid for poor questioned

JAKARTA (JP): City councilors questioned on Friday the low quality of rice distributed to low-income residents by the Jakarta Logistics Agency (Dolog) in the past few months.

"We condemn the agency because it has distributed rice that could pose a threat to residents' health," the chairman of council's Commission B for economic and financial affairs, M. Syarif Zulkarnaen, said.

"The agency must act as the final institution to screen all rice distributed through its warehouses. This is also valid even if the distributed rice did not belong to Dolog."

Syarif, a councilor of the United Development Party (PPP) faction, was speaking at a meeting of the commission with the agency executives discussing the allegation that the agency had distributed bad quality rice, as reported by non-governmental organization (NGO) Pangan for the Poor (Param) on Tuesday.

The agency was alleged to have provided and distributed a poor quality of rice to the city's low-income residents, while selling a better quality to a third party.

Another councilor, Batu Tahan Marpaung of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction, asked the agency to improve its quality control mechanism to avoid a reoccurrence of a similar case in the future.

"The agency must not acquire any low quality rice for its warehouses. It must also maintain the quality of all rice stored in its warehouses," Marpaung said.

The agency's deputy chairman, Saean Achmady, told the councilors that the agency was only responsible in storing and distributing the rice, but not acquiring it.

"The rice, sold at a cheap price, was provided by the UN World Food Program (WFP). It cooperated with several NGOs to distribute the rice to low-income residents," he said.

"WFP selected the NGOs and also the eligible recipients of the cheap rice.

"We've got nothing to do with the whole selection process."

Data from Dolog shows that the WFP gave 28,566 tons of long green rice from the United States. Three thousand tons were distributed to Cianjur, West Java, and another 3,500 tons to Semarang, Central Java.

"There are still 17,000 tons in storage at the agency's warehouses," said Achmady.

The rice is sold at Rp 1,000 (13 US cents) per kilogram, which is about half the market price.

Achmady said the agency had arranged a better quality from China as a replacement for the low quality rice.

"But Param insisted on distributing the rice from the United States," he said. "The State Logistics Agency (Bulog) had imported the rice and we just distributed it."

He also said that the agency offered the rice to several cattle food traders in an open bid. "We sold it for Rp 1,900 per kilogram."

Separately, Governor Sutiyoso told reporters at City Hall that he would take necessary action if some agency executives had tampered with the rice distribution.

"The agency should have known better on the matter. However, I'm quite sure that it was only a mistake," he said.

WFP program advisor Bishow Parajulie denied the allegation that the organization provided low quality rice for the low- income residents.

"We provided a medium quality, which is above the quality of average rice available in local markets," he told The Jakarta Post over the phone on Friday.

He said there was a possibility that one or two sacks might have been damaged during transportation or when it was loaded into the warehouses.

He said the WFP works closely with 15 NGOs and the logistics agency to provide cheap rice for nearly three million residents in the Greater Jakarta area. (05)