Wardah Hafidz clarifies

Wardah Hafidz clarifies

A number of media reported that the World Food Program (WFP)
accused the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) of probable involvement
in a demonstration in order not to pay the Rp 1.25 billion that
the consortium owed to the WFP from sales of subsidized rice to
the urban poor.

As the party accused, we at the UPC think the way in which the
WFP reacted to the demonstration was immature, abhorrent and
insensitive. Indeed, on April 17, 2000, when the demonstration
took place, the UPC had not yet paid the amount mentioned by the
WFP. The money was from the sale of rice during three weeks in
March -- i.e. the second, third and fourth weeks -- to 160,000
family heads in the greater Jakarta area. Each family head
received five kilograms. The UPC conducted the activity in
cooperation with the WFP. The delay in payment was due to:

First, the quality of the rice in those three weeks was poor.
The UPC voluntary workers had a hard time selling the rice
quickly.

Second, the WFP's rice subsidy program finished at the end of
March 2000. Since then, the UPC has been in the process of
finalizing the entire bookkeeping, checking all the expenditures
and in-payments, etc., hence the delay. The UPC would be stupid
to damage the name of its institute by defaulting on the payment
of an amount that is insignificant compared to the long-term
losses it would suffer. The WFP has made a reckless defamatory
statement.

In the dialog between WFP director Philip J. Clark and the
demonstrators, he said the reason for the delay relayed by the
UPC was trumped up because other NGOs conducting similar programs
were not late in their payments even though they also experienced
problems in selling poor-quality rice from the WFP.

We would like to clarify here that the system used by the UPC
in this program is different from the one applied by other NGOs
in similar programs. The WFP designs the program in a
centralistic way, making NGOs mere implementers for the sale of
rice against a fee of Rp 120 a kilogram (operational funds). It
can be seen that if the UPC conducted this program in accordance
with the WFP design, the UPC would be an institute that wallowed
in money thanks to its participation in the program. It is
because every week the UPC received an allotment for selling
750,000 kilograms (750 tons) of rice. The fee that could be
obtained by the UPC would be 750,000 X Rp 120 = Rp 90 million a
week or Rp 270 million a month.

At the start of the program in September 1999 the UPC changed
the system by applying decentralization. It comprised the
determination of the poor people entitled to receive subsidized
rice, the tabulation of data, the implementation of rice sales,
the determination of the use of the operational funds (Rp 120).
The UPC discussed the implementation of the program with
volunteers in all the villages in Greater Jakarta. These people
numbered 986, both men and women. In the matter of operational
funds, it was agreed to fix a fee of Rp 7 for the UPC which
carried out coordination and monitoring, wrote the weekly and
final reports, transferred the money to the WFP and other
administrative tasks.

The UPC has not made itself a subdistributor of the WFP
subsidized rice program, but instead took the opportunity to
implement the program to facilitate the urban poor to organize
themselves, to make them politically aware and to promote
cohesion and solidarity among them.

Due to the difference in the systems, when there was a delay
in payments from the villages, the UPC did not have reserve funds
to temporarily cover the payment

This clarification is meant as public accountability of the
UPC's activities. If community members including the media wish
to know about the UPC's activities in this program and others,
please call us at 01-8642915; 9205220 or e-mail
upc@centrin.net.id.

WARDAH HAFIDZ

UPC Coordinator

Jakarta