Ombudsman Of The Republic Of Indonesia Highlights The 2024 Free Homecoming Program: Bus Occupancy Less Than 60 Percent

JAKARTA - The government routinely holds free homecoming programs every year, including in 2024. The mode of transportation that is often used is buses.

Even so, the Indonesian Ombudsman highlighted that the program did not work properly. This is because many people have registered, but a few have left.

"Based on observations during the survey, the team saw that several free homecoming bus fleets were still not fully occupied, and only less than 60 percent of the available seats were filled," said RI Ombudsman Member Hery Susanto in the agenda of submitting the 2024 Eid Homecoming Results Monitoring Report which was monitored online, Monday, May 27.

Hery explained that this happened because the community had registered for various free homecoming programs organized by the government. For one prospective homecoming candidate, you can even register for two different programs.

"But, indeed our society is smart too. As soon as there is a free homecoming, he tries it here, that one. Everything is tried to register. The Pertamina he tried, the PLN he tried," he said.

Therefore, Hery suggested that on the next various free homecoming agendas, the government could design a system that could limit registrants to only one free homecoming program. This is to prevent the occupancy of free homecoming programs below 60 percent.

"The free homecoming registration system needs to be implemented in an integrated manner to ensure that there are no double registrants which will result in the free homecoming quota not being fully filled," he said.

The other problems for the program are related to accessibility. Hery said, a number of passengers admitted that they had difficulty accessing free homecoming tickets. In fact, some people need up to three days to get the ticket.

Then, these conditions result in several things, namely that people pay services to others to register online via the free homecoming application and free homecoming tickets that are traded.

He also suggested that all parties improve coordination effectively. Thus, the free homecoming program can run optimally in the future.

"We also suggest that the reliability of the free homecoming application be increased by paying attention to personal data protection. Then, make it easier to register and verify for free homecoming participants and provide information on bus numbers and seat numbers that will be occupied according to registration," he added.