Ministry of Home Affairs Proposes Special Institution to Manage Otsus Funds in Aceh Bill

Illustration of extreme poverty in Utengkot Village, Lhokseumawe, Aceh, Wednesday, February 3, 2021. (ANTARA-Rahmad)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Home Affairs (Kemendagri) proposes that there should be a special institution to manage special autonomy funds for the Aceh Government, during the drafting of the Bill on Amendments to Law Number 11 of 2006 concerning the Aceh Government, together with the DPR RI Legislation Agency.

Director of Regional Planning, Special Autonomy, and Regional Autonomy Advisory Council of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Sumule Tumbo, said that later the institution would be tasked with making plans, allocating its budget, determining the implementation area, and making accountability.

"Well, this Aceh is in the process of adjusting the governance of this Otsus fund is very necessary," said Sumule at the parliament complex, Jakarta, Tuesday, quoted by Antara.

He also gave an example that the Yogyakarta Special Region (DIY) Provincial Government has a special institution that handles the special privileges owned by Yogyakarta, called Paniradya Kaistimewan.

The institution manages special funds from planning, allocating its budget to focus on target targets according to the needs of basic community services, to its implementation and accountability.

In addition, he said that the existence of a special institution could also be the answer to questions regarding the allocation of otsus funds.

The institution, he said, could later label public facility projects funded by otsus.

"For example, building roads, building bridges, building schools, whatever is funded from this special autonomy fund so that it can be labeled as a source of otsus funds," he said.

Based on his party's records, the otsus funds for Aceh from 2008 to 2025 still left a considerable amount of budget calculation (silpa) left.

However, on the other hand, he said that the poverty rate in Aceh was still high.

"The 2018 budget was more than Rp2 trillion. Well, the rest of 2019, 2020, 2021 left a gap that was also still quite large above Rp1 trillion," he said.