Should The MBG Program Be Maintained?

A student is eating free Nutrition Food and Milk at SDN Pasir Kaliki Mandiri 1, Cimahi City, West Java, on Thursday (17/4/2025). (ANTARA/Lintang Budiyanti Prameswari/pri)

JAKARTA The implementation of the Free Nutrition Eating or MBG program carried by President Prabowo Subianto and Gibran Rakabuming Raka was urged to stop after the news that public kitchen partners who were not paid circulated widely in the media.

The case of dispute over the payment of MBG program kitchen partners at the Kalibata Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit (SPPG), South Jakarta with the Media Berkat Nusantara (MBN) foundation has become the center of attention.

The owner of the kitchen partner, Ira Mesra Destiawati, admitted that her kitchen suffered a loss of Rp975,375,000 or almost Rp1 billion because she had not received a penny since starting operations in February.

According to Ira's attorney, Dana Harly, the loss of almost Rp. 1 billion is based on the calculation of the portion that has been cooked by her client, which is 65,025 servings. The entire portion of MBG is carried out in two stages.

This dispute is of course a public concern. Moreover, since the beginning of the MBG program, which is the mainstay of President Prabowo Subianto, has been questioned by the public more often.

A public policy observer from Trisakti University, Trubus Rahadiansyah, assessed that the issue of irregularities in the management and execution of the messy MBG program could reduce public trust.

"If the MBG program fails, then the impact will clearly affect the public trust. Public distrust can lead to high resistance to similar programs going forward," Trubus said.

Trubus Rahadiansyah said that the case that occurred in the MBG kitchen in Kalibata was actually like an iceberg phenomenon which might only show a small part of the big problems that occurred in the field.

He also urged to conduct a thorough investigation into the alleged misappropriation of this assistance program.

"This needs a thorough investigation, because we suspect that a similar case must have occurred elsewhere. Why is that? Because of weak supervision and non-transparent governance," Trubus explained.

Meanwhile, Ubaid Matraji's education observer assessed that this incident was a tangible form of the incomplete MBG program. According to him, this program was created "original" only to fulfill campaign promises.

Given that the MBG program comes from the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN), this management should be carried out properly.

"The state budget must be managed properly, do not leak it, do not miss the target, do not not not achieve the expected goal and so on," he said.

The closure of the public kitchen in Kalibata, according to Ubaid, shows a waste of state money. In fact, President Prabowo Subianto has touted the efficiency of the budget some time ago.

Similarly, Director of Fiscal Justice from the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) Media Wahyu Askar also said that the problem involving foundations and kitchen partners in Kalibata was only one of a series of chaos that occurred in the implementation of the MBG project.

Several other cases that have been highlighted include poisoning due to MBG, rejection in Papua, and inconsistency in the implementation. According to Askar, this is clear evidence that the project was not carefully planned. The program, previously known as Free Lunch, was originally prepared in a hurry without considering many fundamental things.

"What happened today was the fruit of the non-clear program planning from the start," explained Askar.

Askar added that the inconsistencies regarding roles, those involved, to budget allocations are a tangible form of how this program was prepared in a hurry. One indicator is the change in the budget allocation for food prices.

As is known, initially the budget set for each portion of MBG's food was IDR 15 thousand, but it fell to IDR 10,000. At the beginning of the program implementation, there was even a student's food menu that was not accompanied by milk.

"If it really has to be continued, of course there must be a big evaluation carried out," said Askar.

The evaluation, said Askar, included providing transparency regarding project planning, budget allocation, and opening space for surveillance to civil society in order to make the monitoring function run more optimally.

Meanwhile, in a statement received by VOI, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said that a series of budget management problems, such as those experienced by SPPG Kalibata, showed poor governance and weak supervision in President Prabowo Subianto's favorite project, MBG.

ICW said the program had many weaknesses, ranging from the budget side, technical policies, implementation in the field, to supervision. In addition, information related to the MBG program is also considered not transparent and closed to the public.

ICW researcher Dewi Anggraeni admitted that she was not surprised by the chaos of the MBG program. Because from the beginning it was held on January 6, 2025, ICW found poor governance. For example, regarding budget transparency, supervision, and implementation of technical policies.

For this reason, Dewi suggested that the MBG program be terminated because of frequent problems.

"Considering the more chaotic it will be in the future, it is better to stop it from now on," said Dewi.

The Free Nutrition Eating Program is even now often preserved into a Free Nutrition Eating Project, because of its inflatable implementation. So, can MBG be maintained?