Different Views Of The Minister On Fictional Villages

JAKARTA - The puzzle of a fictional village or village of stealth has not been resolved after several weeks. The village was disclosed by the Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani to refer to the area that submitted a list of village fund assistance but the population was not reasonable.

To reveal this fictional village, Commission V DPR held a meeting with the Minister of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration (Mendes-PDTT) Abdul Halim Iskandar, today, Tuesday 19 November.

When met on the sidelines of the meeting, Abdul Halim denied the existence of a fictitious village as revealed by Sri Mulyani Indrawati. He emphasized that no uninhabited village received village funds.

"I have never confirmed the existence of a stealth village. From the perspective of the Ministry of Health, we monitor everything and the reporting of village funds is already running. There is not a single village that is not responsible," said Abdul Halim.

When asked about the Ministry of Health's strategy to get around the fictional village so as not to become a burden on the state, Abdul Halim said that he did not explain anything. This is because, he believes, there will never be a fictional village.

Abdul Halim will also clarify to Sri Mulyani the existence of this fictional village as well as the plan to freeze village funds as a result.

"I will clarify first. I can not comment because I have not heard the minister say that," he said.

Need for verification

In the aftermath of this fictional village, Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian asked the village to re-verify it. He gave an example, the village affected by the Lapindo mudflow, in Sidoarjo is still registered with his ministry, even though the area has actually been lost to the mud.

He also asked the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Villages and Development of Disadvantaged Areas not to make separate statements regarding fictitious villages. Tito asked them to check the data directly in the field.

"I don't think each agency will make its own different statements, I ask for coordination with the Ministry of Finance, especially the Director General of Budget, then the Ministry of Health will go to the field," said Tito Karnavian at the Parliament Complex, Senayan, Jakarta, Monday, November 18.

Meanwhile, the Director General of Village Government Development at the Ministry of Home Affairs, Nata Irawan, stated that as many as four villages which were later said to be fictitious, actually existed and were legitimate as villages historically and sociologically. He asked that the mention of the term fictitious village should be eliminated and replaced with the failure of village institutions because of the existence of a law flawed regional regulation.

The four villages are Arombu Utama Village, Latoma District, Lerehoma Village, Anggaberi District, Wiau Village, Routa District, and Napooha Village, Latoma District. The results of the Ministry of Home Affairs' investment show that government activities in the four villages are not going well. This is because the village head and the apparatus do not get an income that is in accordance with the prevailing laws and regulations.

In fact, the Ministry of Home Affairs also found another problem, namely, the gap between the village head and his apparatus and the income received by the village local facilitators, who incidentally did not help much and were not always present in the field.

Nata also said that his team's report also found data on regional heads who did not provide comprehensive guidance related to village governance. To overcome this, the Ministry of Home Affairs immediately sent a circular to carry out a comprehensive rearrangement of the village.

The appearance of a fictional village

The Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati also conveyed the suspicion of a stealth village during a joint working meeting between Commission XI of the DPR, Monday, November 4. During the meeting, Sri Mulyani revealed that there were reports related to the fictional village. He said the village was allocated village funds, but in fact it had no population.

Sri Mulyani also explained several indicators that show whether a village is fictitious or not. According to him, one of the characteristics is when the village has a population of less than 100.

As for this year, the government has allocated a village fund budget of Rp 70 trillion. The realization until September 30, 2019 reached IDR 42.2 trillion or 62.9 percent. With this amount of funds, with around 74,000 villages throughout Indonesia, on average each village will receive transfer funds worth Rp. 900 million per year.

As for next year, the government will increase the village fund budget to Rp 72 trillion, and there is also a village budget of Rp 3 trillion for 8,212 urban villages.

The Ministry of Finance will also stop the distribution of Village Funds to fictional villages as soon as possible. In fact, this will be done at the final stage of disbursement of village funds or before the end of this year.

Based on the Minister of Finance Regulation (PMK) Number 225 of 2017 concerning Management of Transfers to Regions and Village Funds, the disbursement of village funds is carried out in three stages. Phase I is 20 percent from January to June, stage II is 40 percent from March-June, and stage III is July at the earliest.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati emphasized that her party is not reluctant to withdraw the budget funds that have been transferred to a number of uninhabited villages, aka stealth villages.

"If there is an area where village funds are found that the village is not legitimate, we freeze it. If the transfer is already done, we will take it again, through whom? Yes, the regional government," said Sri Mulyani.