Students to help supervise funds for poor: Kalla

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is requesting universities to directly supervise the channeling of assistance funds for low-income people derived from the fuel subsidy cut, amid concerns about misuse by officials at the central and regional level.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla told The Jakarta Post recently that in order to make sure the money goes to the needy, the government would sign a memorandum of understanding with 35 universities nationwide to supervise the fund distribution.

"Monitoring is an important issue. Physically, the funds will be monitored by the universities. They will deploy thousands of students for that purpose.

"As for financial accountability, it will be handled by the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP)," said Kalla at his office.

The universities are part of a special team tasked by the government to monitor the disbursement of the funds. The effort includes planning, coordination, monitoring, evaluation, supervision, auditing and the securing of the funds.

The government has announced an average 29 percent increase in fuel prices, arguing that the move was for the benefit of the nation as it would lead to greater funding allocation for welfare programs, encourage more efficient fuel usage and prevent fuel smuggling.

The government has promised to allocate Rp 17.8 trillion (US$1.95 billion) from the fuel subsidy cut to finance a number of programs targeted directly at the poor, with most of funds going to scholarships, the purchase of subsidized rice for the poor, rural infrastructure projects and health care.

However, based on past experience, the funds for low-income families are prone to misuse, particularly by local administrations.

While pledging that the funds would not be misappropriated, Kalla warned of possible complaints from the poor over some administrative difficulties during the disbursement.

Kalla also said that not all economically disadvantaged people would receive assistance. Only those whose income is no more than $1 a day including farmers or laborers, would receive the fund.

In education for instance, "the number of poor students are about 30 million, but we can only afford to give scholarships to about 12 million students," said Kalla.

However, he asserted that the fund would be enough to cover health services and facilities for all the poor.

The disbursement of the financial assistance will be conducted by local administrations, at the subdistrict, district and village level.