Purbaya Will Search For Unpaid Ministry Projects

Minister of Finance Purbaya Yudhi Sadive (Photo: Doc. VOI)

Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Purbaya Yudhi Sadive said he would trace arrears in payments to meeting, incentive, convention, exhibition (MICE) businesses, events and multi-events which reached nearly Rp400 billion and had not been resolved for more than four years.

The government will re-examine the position of handling the problem in order to ensure a fair settlement for all parties.

"I'll check it immediately, because in 2021 I don't know (not yet the Minister of Finance). This matter hasn't reached me either. But I have heard that there are vendors or contractors working on government or ministry projects that have not yet been paid, even though the implementation has been running," he quoted Antara as saying.

The Minister of Finance promised to try to solve it.

"I will see where the handling is and I will study it to be completed," he said.

Previously, business actors who are members of the Indonesia Congress and Convention Association (INCCA) and the Association of Indonesian Travel Companies (Asita) complained about the government's unpaid payment for the event (event).

In fact, the activity has been completed, such as the XX Papua PON in 2021 which has been around for four years.

This makes the climate not conducive to the growth of the business world.

Chairman of the DPP INCCA Iqbal Alan Abdullah said that Rp340 billion of Papua PON debt had not been paid to business actors, which generally are small and medium enterprises ranging from catering businesses, exhibition contractors, transportation, opening and closing and others.

This does not include the debt of Perpanas XVII in 2021 which is also in Papua of IDR 58 billion, bringing the total to almost IDR 400 billion.

According to Iqbal, the delay in payment had a serious impact on the business continuity of their members, who mostly relied on short-term cash flows for operations.

Therefore, he hopes that the Ministry of Finance under Purbaya's leadership will immediately follow up to pay off obligations to vendors.

"This is so that our members can move again, and the national business wheels can also rotate to encourage economic growth and provide jobs," said Iqbal, expecting.

Furthermore, he said INCCA and Asita hoped that the government would encourage payments to the winners of the tender for MICE-Event and multi-event government activities by down payment and gradual payments until the activities were completed.

Not like it is today where 100 percent payment is always made after the activity takes place.

"We also hope that the government can provide easy bank credit to support the implementation of activities or events financed by the APBN/APBD/BUMN/BUMD with a 50-60 percent guarantee of invoice or SPK, such as in other countries, for example in Singapore and Australia," said Iqbal.