Cirebon Bansos Funds Disqualified up to Rp264 Million, Mensos Will Take Action English: Cirebon Bansos Funds Disqualified up to Rp264 Million, Mensos Will Take Action

Minister of Social Affairs (Mensos) Saifullah Yusuf / ANTARA / Fathnur Rohman.

JAKARTA - The Minister of Social Affairs (Mensos) Saifullah Yusuf ensures that his party will not hesitate to dismiss the companion of the Family Hope Program (PKH) who has been proven to have committed violations, following the alleged case of social assistance (bansos) funds in Cirebon, West Java.

He said that this firm step was part of a continuous evaluation of the performance of PKH assistants in all regions.

"Learning from last year, we gave SP1 and SP2 to almost 500 PKH companions, and 49 of them we stopped," said the Minister of Social Affairs, quoted by ANTARA, Friday, April 24.

This year, he continued, there have been four PKH assistants who were dismissed after he signed the decision.

The Minister of Social Affairs emphasized that PKH assistants had been entrusted by the state to help the beneficiary community to improve their welfare.

He reminded that the main task of the companion is to accompany the beneficiary's family to get an economic class, not to take actions that are detrimental to them.

"Not lying to the beneficiary's family, but instead they must accompany them so that they become a family that has risen in class," he said.

The Minister of Social Affairs assessed that if there were violations committed by PKH assistants, it would have a serious impact because it concerned public trust.

He also conveyed that many people were interested in becoming PKH assistants, so that the position must be carried out with full responsibility.

The Minister of Social Affairs asked PKH assistants not to play around in carrying out their duties and to maintain integrity in their work.

In addition, he encouraged the role of the community and the mass media to report if they found any irregularities in the implementation of social assistance programs.

"If there are journalists who see irregularities committed by the companions, please report it to us," he said.

Previously, the Head of the Cirebon City Police Criminal Investigation Unit, AKP Adam Gana, said that his party had arrested a fugitive in a case of alleged corruption in the PKH social assistance program, with the initials EK, after fleeing to the Lampung area.

He said the suspect was arrested on Saturday (18/4) at around 02.30 WIB while sleeping at a resident's house in Pasar Madang Village, Tanggamus Regency, Lampung.

Based on information from the police, the suspect is suspected of reducing the nominal assistance in the invitation letter for disbursement so that around 900 beneficiaries received smaller funds, with a total state loss of IDR 264,555,000.