Sutiyoso keeps donors' aid for flood victims: Deputy

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The reluctance on the part of many people to make donations through formal channels like the city administration is understandable given the sluggishness of these channels in distributing the aid.

An official said on Friday the city administration had not distributed some Rp 3.3 billion (US$347,000) collected late in February from businesspeople during a charity event held in Ancol to raise money for flood victims.

"The money is being kept by Governor Sutiyoso in some bank account," said the deputy governor for people's welfare, Djaelani.

He said the funds could not be distributed to the victims because the administration was waiting for an additional Rp 700 million that was promised by donors during the charity night. Of this amount, Rp 600 million was promised by Team Care, a charity group organized by high-ranking officials in the city administration.

"We are still waiting for the (promised) funds," said Djaelani.

Djaelani said the money would be used to help the flood victims, particularly in the area of education. However, he said he was not sure of the details of how exactly the money would be spent, adding that the city administration would discuss this at a later time.

According to Djaelani, there is no rush to deliver the money because the flood victims have received money for their education needs from various non-governmental organizations, as well as from the city administration through the social affairs agency.

"Actually, in the education sector most of the problems have been solved as many organizations have distributed education aid, and the city's social affairs agency has also distributed some 130,000 packages of school items," he said.

He also said the administration already had distributed some Rp 2 billion in aid collected from individuals and organizations.

He said the money was used to purchase various goods needed by flood victims, such as school uniforms, books, pencils, pens and household items like kerosene lamps.

Meanwhile, Wicahyono, an official at SMU 8 high school, whose school was inundated for weeks in January and February, said his school was still badly in need of aid.

"We have not finished repainting the classroom walls. So if funds are available, it would help us," said Wicahyono.

The massive floods that hit the capital in January and February affected over 350,000 people. Hundreds of schools were closed, either because they were inundated with water or were used as temporary shelters for flood victims.