Malang City Government Affirms No Misappropriation Of COVID-19 Funeral Incentive Funds

MALANG - Malang City Government ensured that there was no misappropriation of incentive funds for the COVID-19 funeral team, following reports of alleged misappropriation of incentive funds from Malang Corruption Watch (MCW). "There is no embezzlement and so on," said Sutiaji as quoted by Antara, Thursday, September 2. Sutiaji explained that the incentive fund for funeral workers who were confirmed positive for COVID-19 was IDR 1.5 million per grave. The amount is divided by Rp. 750 thousand for grave diggers, and the rest for funeral workers. He confirmed that the funds that had not been received in full were not due to delays in disbursement. Meanwhile, the Head of the Malang City Cemetery UPT, Taqruni Akbar, emphasized that there was no misappropriation of the funeral team's incentive funds as reported by MCW. Currently, the incentive proposal process from May to August 2021 is still ongoing. "So the proposed mechanism must be completed with the SPJ that has been realized, then you can submit it again," he explained. Malang, which amounted to Rp. 1.5 million, was sourced from the Unexpected Expenditure (BTT) of the 2021 Regional Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBD). The incentives were given to the funeral team and grave diggers, with an amount of Rp. 750 thousand each for each corpse. The process of disbursing the incentives is carried out after collecting data by the local kelurahan.

Previously, Malang Corruption Watch (MCW), in its report, mentioned allegations of illegal levies (extortion) of incentive funds for COVID-19 funeral officers. This institution found that several gravediggers did not receive their full welfare rights. In the report, it was stated that at the Plaosan Barat Cemetery and LA Sucipto Blimbing, Malang City, one of the gravediggers reported that he had only received three payments even though the total number of grave excavations reached 11 times. The same thing happened at the LA Sucipto Blimbing Cemetery, Malang City. Officers claimed to have excavated more than 30 graves. However, at this time, he only received an incentive of Rp. 3 million. In addition, allegations of extortion were also found under the pretext of administrative requirements, where from the total incentive value of Rp. 750 thousand, it was reported that Rp. 100 thousand was deducted. Thus, officers only get an incentive of Rp. 650 thousand. MCW assesses that the mechanism for distributing incentive funds for grave diggers also overlaps, because everything is given directly by the COVID-19 Task Force, and then taken over by the lurah, causing potential fraud.