DPR: Extension of Aceh's Regional Development Fund is an Opportunity to Improve Budget Governance

Member of Commission II of the DPR from the Gerindra Party Faction, Azis Subekti, assessed that the extension of the Special Autonomy Fund (Otsus) for Aceh was a momentum for improving budget governance. He assessed that the people of Aceh also needed to know where the flow of Otsus funds used by the government.

Azis said the extension of the Aceh Otsus Fund after the disaster was basically a policy that was difficult to reject morally.

According to him, the state must continue to be involved and work hard for areas that are struggling to recover collapsed houses, damaged infrastructure, paralyzed public services, and a beaten economic pulse.

"In such circumstances, fiscal bias is not merely a policy choice, but a tangible form of the state's presence. However, the long experience of managing the budget many times reminds us of one reality: big money does not always produce big changes. Too often we see the budget increase, the report is neat, but improvements on the ground move much slower than promised," said Azis in a written statement, Tuesday, April 14.

Therefore, continued Azis, discussion regarding the extension of the Aceh Otsus Fund should not stop at the nominal and validity issues.

"The much more fundamental question lies in the question: is the governance of its use healthy enough to ensure that the large funds really materialize into welfare for the people of Aceh?" he continued.

Azis revealed that in a meeting with Commission II of the DPR on April 13, 2026, the Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian emphasized that the otsus fund must provide tangible and measurable benefits for the community.

According to him, the affirmation should be read not as a bureaucratic formality, but as an acknowledgment of the biggest challenge of the Aceh Otsus Fund so far not only in the amount of funds, but in how the funds are managed and directed.

"Aceh has received large amounts of otsus funds for almost two decades. But after a long time we are still faced with the fact that the construction work has not been completed. Poverty is still high, unemployment is not fully under control, and fiscal dependence on the central government is still strong," said Azis.

"This fact is certainly unfair if read as a total failure of the otsus fund. But it would be equally dishonest if we refused to admit that the magnitude of fiscal transfers has not been fully proportional to the quality of change. This is where the extension of the otsus fund should be interpreted: not as an administrative continuation, but as a momentum for policy correction," added the legislator from the Central Java VI Electoral District.

Azis emphasized that additional post-disaster funds must be directed in a disciplined manner for truly urgent needs, rebuilding basic infrastructure, restoring schools and health facilities, strengthening protection of disaster-prone areas, and reviving the economic activities of affected people.

"This fund must not be dissolved into routine bureaucratic spending or ceremonial programs, which are neatly documented but hardly felt in the lives of residents," he said.

"More than that, the pattern of supervision must change. It has been too long for the success of development to be measured by the high absorption of the budget, as if when the funds are spent, the government's task is considered complete. In fact, the people do not live from the budget realization table. They live from the road that can be passed again, the school that is back to light the hope of its students, the health service that is back to work, and the market that is back to beating," continued Azis.

For this reason, Azis emphasized that supervision of otsus funds in the future must be based on impact, not merely administrative compliance. He said, the measure is no longer just how much of the budget is absorbed, but to what extent the quality of people's lives has really changed.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Azis said, transparency must be the foundation. According to him, the public of Aceh has the right to know clearly what projects are financed by otsus funds, where they are located, who is the executor, what is the value, and how is the progress.

Azis reminded that public funds that work in the dark will eventually only give rise to suspicion, widen the distance between the government and the people, and erode the legitimacy of the policy itself.

"In the end, what is at stake in the extension of the Aceh Otsus Fund is not merely the sustainability of a fiscal scheme. What is at stake is the seriousness of the state and local government to learn from experience, then improve the way this affirmative policy works so that it really becomes a tool for transformation, not just an annual transfer routine," he said.

"Aceh needs fiscal support to recover. That does not need to be debated. But Aceh also needs governance that is able to turn fiscal support into real progress. Because without it, the extension of funds will only extend the flow of the budget, without really, really accelerating change," continued Azis Subekti.