Yogie announces anti-poverty program plan on target

Yogie announces anti-poverty program plan on target

JAKARTA (JP): The government's anti-poverty program launched
last April has achieved its intended target despite some
aberrations, Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. says.

Yogie briefed President Soeharto yesterday about the
implementation of the presidential aid program for backward
villages, known by the Indonesian term Inpres Desa
Tertinggal.

Minister of National Development Planning Ginandjar
Kartasasmita and Soegito, the chief of the Central Bureau of
Statistics, were present at the briefing.

Under the program, the government sends packages of Rp 20
million funds to 20,633 villages considered as backward. The fund
is intended to be used as capital to help the poor help
themselves out of their misery.

"Many of them have succeeded in using the funds," Yogie told
reporters, after meeting with the head of state at the Merdeka
Palace. "There have been some aberrations but overall there are
many more successes than aberrations."

He said more than 16,000 villages have already disbursed the
funds. The villagers in these pockets of poverty have formed
groups, which will manage the revolving fund with supervision by
volunteers provided by the government. There are now 90,547 such
groups across the country with nearly 2.8 million families
enlisted as members.

The program, which now involves 14 million people, was
launched with the intention of improving the welfare of 25
million Indonesians, whose economic conditions classify them as
still living under the poverty line.

Yogie was prepared with some examples.

One villager in Sukoharjo was loaned Rp 800,000, which he used
to buy goats. He has since sold the goats for Rp 1.2 million,
which means he earned Rp 400,000 in only four months.

A Tangerang man, who used to work making clogs, borrowed from
the fund to start his own business. Now he employs 10 people and
is doing a brisk business.

Yogie said the funds keep revolving as the first borrowers
start paying their loans back with some interest.

He said the government is taking steps to rectify the
aberrations. "We never tire in reminding the governors, vice
governors, regents, mayors and district chiefs to make sure that
the funds reach the intended recipients and that they are used
effectively."

The government has warned it will take firm action against
officials who help themselves to any of the funds earmarked for
the poor.

Earlier reports suggested that one district chief has already
lost his job for embezzling from the funds.

Even the funds needed to cover volunteers' expenses are
allocated under a separate budget, so that the entire Rp 20
million in poverty-elimination packets should reach the recipient
groups intact.

In a related development, Ginandjar said Inpres Desa
Tertinggal is not the only program being launched by the
government to help poor people.

He said the government, with the help of foreign aid donors,
is helping to develop infrastructure through the construction of
roads and other facilities in the poorest villages.

The initiative for these projects comes from the villagers
themselves. The Public Works Ministry is helping them with the
technical preparations.

The National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), which
Ginandjar chairs, has already secured pledges from donor
countries for these projects, including Japan, which is providing
$200 million; the World Bank with $100 million, and the Asian
Development Bank with another $50 million. The government is
matching the amounts with rupiah funds. (emb)