128 Employees Died, Sri Mulyani Opens Up COVID-19 Cases In Her Office: We Must Secure Our Economy And Ourselves

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani said that employees in her agency had a fairly high level of risk of being exposed to COVID-19. According to her, as state servants, several work units require direct interaction with the wider community.

"It's a bit difficult to avoid the impact of COVID-19. This is a risk that must be faced by the Ministry of Finance in carrying out state duties", she said virtually while attending a Working Meeting with Commission XI of the Indonesian House of Representatives at the Senayan Parliament Complex, Jakarta, Thursday, September 2.

The Minister of Finance revealed that three units have the highest probability of being exposed to the pandemic, namely the Directorate General of Customs and Excise, the Directorate General of Taxes, and the Directorate General of Treasury.

"These three units have vertical agencies whose work must be related to the community", she said.

On this occasion, the state treasurer shared data on 128 employees of the Ministry of Finance who died from COVID-19. Of these, 77 people came from the Directorate General of Taxes, 16 people from the Directorate General of Customs and Excise, 16 people from the Directorate General of Treasury.

Then, 1 person at the Fiscal Policy Agency, 3 people at the Financial Education and Training Agency, 9 people at the Directorate General of State Assets, 1 person at the Directorate General of Financing and Risk Management, 2 people at the Inspectorate General, and 3 people at the Secretariat General.

"So, on the one hand, we are securing by making national economic policies, but we also have to secure the ranks of the Ministry of Finance and ourselves who are very, very at risk from COVID-19", she said.

Furthermore, Sri Mulyani explained that the increase in active cases at the Ministry of Finance had the same pattern as that which occurred nationally.

“Friends who have been exposed to COVID-19 have a similar pattern to the national one. That time was the highest after the Christmas and New Year holidays, which reached 1,368 at the Ministry of Finance. In Indonesia, there are 175,000 active cases", she said.

“Then there was a slope. The lowest we've ever seen is the active status, only 253 cases, then we all got a warning that there was a delta variant that would cause an increase. Sure enough, active cases at the Ministry of Finance touched 3,789 cases", she continued.

In fact, the former IMF and World Bank boss admitted that he had difficulties in providing isolation locations for Ministry of Finance employees and families exposed to the pandemic.

"How we also seek isolation rooms for families is a problem. But Alhamdulillah, now the situation has subsided, and we have 1,320 active cases in the fourth week of August 2021", closed Sri Mulyani.