The Government is Urged to Compile Valid Data for the Poor to Prevent Corruption in the Distribution of Social Assistance

JAKARTA - Constitutional law expert Bivitri Susanti asked the government to make valid data regarding the number of poor people who will receive assistance to prevent corrupt practices in the distribution of social assistance.

"I said the government is not ready. This can be seen in terms of data and methods in providing social assistance", said Bivitri Susanti at a webinar entitled "Polemics of Philanthropy Fund Management" reported by Antara, Saturday, July 9.

One of the founders of the Center for Law and Policy Studies (PSHK) said that this unpreparedness can be seen in the corruption case that occurred at the Ministry of Social Affairs with the perpetrator of the Minister of Social Affairs, Juliari Batubara.

Lately, he continued, there have been a lot of criticisms related to invalid data regarding the number of poor people who must be assisted.

Bivitri said that sardines are not fit for consumption, which is a COVID-19 social aid and distributed by the Ministry of Social Affairs is an example of this unpreparedness.

In the end, he said, large amounts of state money were wasted. In fact, several people were corrupted, including the Minister of Social Affairs at the time.

In addition to highlighting invalid data and methods that are still considered inappropriate, Bivitri assessed that the bureaucracy in the country is not responding quickly to social problems such as poverty, natural disasters, and so on.

In fact, he explained, various humanitarian or philanthropic institutions are more responsive to social problems that occur in the community.

"Before the ACT incident exploded, we saw the speed of this philanthropy, including Dompet Dhuafa, the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) and others were quicker to act to help the community", he said.

The speed of these humanitarian institutions is due to the absence of a long bureaucracy as in government agencies, he explained.

Bivitri said that the length of the bureaucracy in the government cannot be separated from the necessity because of concerns about findings by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) if they are not careful.

"That's true. But the bureaucracy is flexible to deal with emergency problems", he said.