Jakarta, April 22 (Antara) - The government is now intensifying
supervision and improving the distribution of about 2.8 million tons of
rice for the poor (raskin) allocated for 15.5 million target families
across the country this year.
As part of its social protection policies for the poor, the government,
since 2008, has provided 19.21 million tons of raskin worth Rp97
trillion, until 2013. Each poor family has been allocated 15 kg raskin
per month at a price of Rp1.6 thousand per kg.
"The raskin program contributes 40 percent of the need for rice to a
poor family, which reaches about 38 to 40 kg per month," Coordinating
Minister for People's Welfare Agung Laksono informed the Raskin
Coordination Team's meeting here on Monday.
Earlier, the chief minister for people's welfare stated that the
government had done a lot of things so far, to improve the distribution
of raskin to the recipients. "We have made improvements in the
allocation of raskin distribution," stated Agung Laksono on Thursday
(April 10).
Previously, the KPK, in a study, found that the Raskin program, which
had been running for 15 years, was not effective because it was still
not meeting its targets due to inappropriate quantity, quality, price
and inefficient administrative handling.
The KPK therefore urged the government to improve the distribution of raskin among the poor.
According to Director General of Poverty Eradication and Social
Empowerment Hartono Laras, the KPK has given his ministry 30 days to
improve the management and distribution of the subsidized
rice-for-the-poor program (raskin), which the anti-graft agency views as
prone to corruption.
"The KPK asked us to improve the implementation of the Raskin program
beginning April 4," Hartono Laras asserted recently.
On Monday, Romi Dwi Susanto, Director of the Research and Development
of KPK, noted that the problem faced so far in the distribution of
raskin should be studied in order to gauge whether it benefited certain
parties.
"If the problem that happened in the past continued to take place, it
should be studied whether there were parties who took advantage of it,"
Romi was quoted by Kompas.com online media to have stated on Tuesday.
He mentioned that out of the public complaints it had received from
2005 to 2013, the KPK found nine deviation modus in the raskin program.
He added that the modus included invalid data in the number of target
families, fictitious distribution, embezzlement, higher price, reduction
in allocation and inappropriate rice quality.
Therefore, the anti-corruption body has urged the government to improve the distribution of its raskin program.
Director General Hartono Laras explained that the KPK had asked the
Ministry of Social Affairs to improve the implementation of the Raskin
program. He pointed out that the Ministry of Social Affairs, as the
Budget User Institution (KPA) for the raskin program, had the authority
to distribute the budget to state-owned logistics board Bulog.
"We were asked to provide a work mechanism for fund distribution and
KPA budgeting," the director general said. Also, he said the other
aspect that needed to be improved in the raskin program was the data on
the target families as the distribution so far was considered to be off
target.
The number of target families for the raskin program in 2014 was
reported to be 15.5 million families. They will each receive 15
kilograms of rice per month, with a total budget of Rp18 trillion.
Therefore, the government is now intensifying supervision of the
distribution of the raskin to ensure that assistance will reach the
precise target.
"Efforts will be made as a follow up of the evaluation by the
Corruption Eradication Commission for 2014," Hartono Laras stated on
Friday. He noted that supervision will be carried out by the local
governments, who will be assisted by social affairs officials (TKSK) at
the district level.
The supervision is also intended to ensure that the rice for the poor
is of the required quality and sent to the target families.
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare had held a meeting with the
National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), the Ministry of Home
Affairs, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the Ministry of Finance,
state-owned logistics board Bulog and the Central Bureau of Statistics
(BPS) to discuss the follow up efforts of the evaluation that had been
conducted by the KPK.
"We are committed to taking follow up actions with regard to the KPK
recommendation," Hartono said. The follow up actions included program
designs, targets, raskin price and its quality.
The ministry of social affairs also asked its inspectorate general to
help guard the program together with the State Audit Board (BPK), the
Government's Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) and the KPK.
"We also set up a rice payment acceleration and control team," he added.
He said the distribution of raskin this year will be tight so that the
quantity, quality, price and target will meet the targets and be
precise.
"We asked the local governments to supervise. They had done that so far
but this time they will have to do it intensively," the director
general said.
He said many cases occurred when the rice was transported from the
warehouses so that the regional governments should supervise it from
this point until it reached the target families.
Of course, he said, there will be additional budget and the Ministry of
Home Affairs had written to the regional governments to prepare a
budget for the delivery of rice from the distribution points to the
target family destinations.
"So far, the budget only covered the cost until the distribution
points, excluding that in the handing-over points. This led to the
emergence of problems, such as the purchase price being raised higher
(than the government's sanctioned Rp1,600 per liter)," he said.
The government had increased its budget for the program from Rp11.6
trillion in 2008 to Rp15.3 trillion in 2011, Rp15.6 trillion in 2012,
Rp17.9 trillion in 2013 and Rp18.8 trillion in 2014.
The number of raskin recipients in 2008 was 19.1 million target
families but in 2013 the number had reduced to 15.5 million, a reduction
of 3.6 million.
The increase in the budget was in line with raising the quality of
raskin based on the required standards, so that the rice will not smell
and be devoid of insects.***3***
(T.A014/INE/B003)
EDITED BY INE
(T.A014/A/BESSR/Bustanuddin) 22-04-2014 20: |
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