Team set up for safety net scheme
Team set up for safety net scheme
JAKARTA (JP): The government appointed a private organization
led by former finance minister Mar'ie Muhammad to distribute aid
to millions of needy Indonesians under its social safety net
program yesterday.
Mar'ie, known during his days in the cabinet as "Mr. Clean",
promised the work of the Indonesian Committee for Humanitarian
Programs (KKI) would be transparent and clean. The organization
will handle donations to alleviate poverty in the country.
All donations would be audited by the international accounting
firm Prasetio Utomo-Arthur Andersen, Mar'ie said after signing
the agreement between his organization and the government.
State Minister of Population Ida Bagus Oka represented the
government at the signing ceremony.
"KKI will supervise the distribution of donations," confirmed
Haryono Suyono, the Coordinating Minister for People's
Welfare/Poverty Eradication, who also attended the signing
ceremony.
The government's ability to ensure that donations reach the
intended recipients has been undermined by growing reports of
rampant corruption in the bureaucracy.
Mar'ie said his organization has received the support of the
World Bank, albeit indirectly.
He pointed out that Bondan Winarno, who is the organization's
secretary, is a World Bank consultant. The bank last month led a
consortium to raise $7.9 billion in new soft loans to Indonesia.
The committee is made up of high profile public figures
including former health minister Sujudi, former ambassador to the
United Kingdom J.E. Habibie, physician Pratiwi Sudharmono, social
worker Rihna Azrul Azwar and businessmen Bambang N. Rachmadi,
Chairul Tanjung and Hoesein Soeropranoto.
It is a non-profit organization and will work to alert
international society about the urgent need for food and
medicines in the country, Mar'ie said.
In a statement, KKI said its medium term goals were to
preserve basic social services and in the longer term it would
endeavor to provide economic opportunities and build the capacity
for self-sufficiency.
The current economic crisis has sent the number of Indonesians
living below the poverty line from 11 percent of the total
population of 202 million to more than 40 percent, the Central
Bureau of Statistics revealed last month. The bureau predicts
that 48 percent of the population, or 95.8 million people, will
be living below the poverty line by the end of this year.
With inflation running at 60 percent and the price of food and
medicine soaring, many people have found themselves impoverished.
About six million children failed to re-register for school in
July because their parents could not afford the tuition fees.
The government has introduced various social-safety net
schemes to cushion the poor from the impact of the economic
crisis. They include providing food and medicines at heavily
subsidized prices and providing school grants to poor families.
Mar'ie said KKI would collect donations from all sectors of
the economy, including the private sector, and distribute the
money to poor families.
The committee will enlist the help of mosques, churches and
temples to distribute food, and community health centers to
distribute medicines, he said. (01)