DPR Do Not Accept The Term 'Fictional Village' From The Minister Of Finance

Commission V DPR working meeting with the Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Areas, and Transmigration, Tuesday, November 19 (Mery Handayani / VOI)

JAKARTA - Commission V DPR RI held a working meeting with the Minister of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Areas and Transmigration (Mendes-PDTT) Abdul Halim Iskandar. This meeting touched on the existence of a fictional village brought up by Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani earlier this month.

Most members of Commission V DPR disagree with this term. A member of Commission V from the Democratic faction, Irwan, for example, is annoyed by the term fictitious or stealth village. He said, this issue could interfere with the budget for village development.

"Suddenly, if there is an issue of fictitious village, stealth village, then the policy of determining the Ministry of Village budget becomes something that we pay attention to together. Do not let it become an entry point to rationalize village funds, which are actually still lacking," said Irwan at a Commission meeting. V, DPR, Parliament Complex, Senayan, Tuesday, 19 November.

According to Irwan, so far, the budget ceiling for villages is not 100 percent approved by the Ministry of Finance. He is afraid that this fictitious village information will create a setback from underdeveloped villages that are heading towards developing villages, even independent villages.

"I hope Commission V's attention is to support the distribution of the Ministry of Health's budget."

Irwan

Then, a member of Commission V from the PKB faction, Irmawan, considered that the creation of a fictitious village was very difficult because the regulations on its creation were quite long, so it was impossible. "According to my common sense, it's not that easy about a fictional village. It's not easy to create a village, there must be a parent village, it must be known by the sub-district head, regent, governor and so on," explained Irmawan.

Meanwhile, a member of Commission V from the Tamanuri NasDem faction suggested that there should be an evaluation of villages in Indonesia, especially villages that do not meet administrative requirements. One of the indicators is a lack of population.

"Ghost-haunted village, so he only has 50 heads of family, 100 of them, I read that it's clear. There's no longer if he's only 50 heads of family, he gets Rp750 million (village funds). Where do you want him to be? "Therefore, we need to evaluate things that meet the requirements outlined by the ministry," he said.

Commission V DPR RI will summon Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani to explain the data and facts about this fictional village. Deputy Chairman of Commission V Ridwan Bae said that he would write to the leadership of the DPR to expedite this process.

"Commission V is actually not the domain to summon the Minister of Finance. But that does not mean it cannot, we can go through the DPR RI leadership to ask him. But because of that we still need further data from the results of our meeting with the Ministry of Health today," Ridwan said.

The suspicion that this fictitious village emerged allegedly to obtain village funds, especially since the number of villages in Indonesia has indeed increased in 2019 by 74,954 villages. Meanwhile, in 2018 there were only 74,910 villages, so there were 44 additional villages.

In 2019, the village funds disbursed by the central government through the Ministry of Finance for 74,954 villages amounted to Rp. 70 trillion. In 2018, the Ministry of Finance disbursed a budget of IDR 60 trillion for 74,910 villages. Since the disbursement of village funds in 2015 to 2019, there have been differences in the number of villages that have been distributed as recipients of village funds.

In 2015, the funds disbursed were IDR 20.67 trillion for 74,093 villages. Then in 2016 the village fund was IDR 46.98 trillion for 74.754 villages, then in 2017 IDR 60 trillion for 74,910 villages.