Sri Mulyani Waits For BPKP Audit Process For Bulog Bill Payment Of IDR 16 Trillion

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) asked the Ministry of Finance to immediately pay the bill to Perum Bulog in the amount of Rp. 16 trillion.

Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani said that her party would pay the payment of the bill to Perum Bulog in the amount of Rp. 16 trillion after waiting for the audit process from the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP). In addition, we hope that the audit process can be completed soon.

"So now BPKP is asked to speed up the audit process, so that the payment of the bill can be done," Sri Mulyani said at a press conference, Monday, November 6.

Sri Mulyani said that the payment of bills to Perum Bulog should not be a problem, because Bulog and the National Food Agency (Bapanas) can get a budget ranging from rice imports to market operations.

"But this shouldn't be a problem, Bulog and Bapanas can get their budget starting from rice imports and market operations," he explained.

The bill payment wants to be accelerated because Bulog requires additional budget for the procurement of the first phase of rice amounting to Rp7.9 trillion and the procurement of the second phase of around Rp8.4 trillion and distribution costs and others of around Rp2.8 trillion.

Previously, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto said that in addition to paying bills to Bulog, President Jokowi also approved rice food assistance until June 2024.

Airlangga said the amount of assistance is about 10 kilograms per beneficiary family (KPM). Meanwhile, next year's food aid KPM will be 22,004,077 beneficiaries.

In addition to rice food assistance, the government also provides food assistance for stunting-prone families (KRS) in the form of chicken meat and chicken eggs for 1.4 million beneficiaries in 7 provinces as of next year.