Crowded With Jokowi's Problem Of Freeing COVID-19 Vaccine, Sri Mulyani: Government Provides Rp.60.5 Trillion In 2021

Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati. (Photo: Ministry of Finance)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani Indrawati in early December revealed that the budget for handling and procuring the COVID-19 vaccine for 2021 had exceeded IDR 60.5 trillion with the total health budget in the 2021 State Budget reaching IDR 169.7 trillion.

"The new vaccination program will start and continue in 2021," said Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati as quoted by Antara.

Sri Mulyani explained the details of the Rp. 60.5 trillion allocation, of which Rp. 18 trillion was aimed at anticipating the procurement of the COVID-19 vaccine, anticipating immunization or the vaccination program reaching Rp. 3.7 trillion.

Furthermore, Sri Mulyani continued, IDR 1.3 trillion for the purchase of facilities and infrastructure, laboratories, R&D, and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests which will be carried out by the Ministry of Health with a procurement value of IDR 1.2 trillion and the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM). Rp100 billion.

The government, said the former World Bank Managing Director, is also still allocating class III National Health Insurance (JKN) contributions for the poor.

"Procurement is planned to run for several years from 2020, to 2021 and 2022 as needed," said Sri Mulyani.

Even though there is a vaccine, he continued, the government will continue to carry out tests, tracing, and treatment or 3T. For this reason, the government still allocates a budget for the purchase of various supporting equipment such as PCR equipment and reagents for 2021.

Meanwhile, for 2020 the government has allocated a budget of IDR 35.1 trillion which is allocated for the procurement of the COVID-19 vaccine and handling the health sector, including bringing in 1.2 million doses of Sinovac vaccine on Sunday 6 December.

The Ministry of Health, he continued, has spent Rp637.3 billion for the procurement of vaccines, namely three doses of Sinovac and 100 thousand doses of Cansino's vaccine.

As part of the preparation and training of health workers who will carry out vaccinations, Sri Mulyani added that the Ministry of Health has used operational costs.

The minister added that currently the government has spent Rp277.45 billion for the procurement of syringes, alcohol swaps and safety boxes, including buying 249 units each for refrigerators, cold boxes and temperature monitoring devices for vaccines.

In addition, he continued, there were also 498 units of carrier vaccines and personal protective equipment with a budget of up to Rp190 billion. For the vaccination activity service network, the Minister added that the government involved 10,134 Puskesmas, 2,877 hospitals and 49 Port Health Offices (KKP) in all work areas in the country.

"This will all be followed later, including the construction of an information system that is being built by the Committee for Handling COVID-19 PEN (KCP-PEN) and Telkom for tracing who has been vaccinated," he said.

Need High Technology

Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the government needed adequate technology to be able to vaccinate 180 million Indonesians. He stated that the existence of adequate technology was needed in order to ensure that vaccinations were carried out in accordance with government targets.

"Imagine if more than 180 million people will be vaccinated and they are vaccinated, it doesn't mean we will need technology," he said at the virtual Indonesia Digital Conference in Jakarta, Wednesday, December 16.

Sri Mulyani explained that later this technology will be used to track people who will be vaccinated twice through the availability of data.

"For tracking those vaccinated twice in a certain period and knowing their whereabouts by name, by NIK, by number so we know," he said.

Therefore, he said the current government's focus is to ensure that all public health centers in Indonesia are connected to the internet and digital technology to support the vaccination process.

He explained that next year the government will accelerate the construction of Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) for areas with less internet access, namely more than 12 thousand villages.

Meanwhile, the budget prepared by the government for the development of information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure for the next year through the 2021 State Budget is IDR 29.6 trillion.

"The spill over positive impact will be extraordinary. All people can use this infrastructure. New opportunities will arise with the digital infrastructure that the government continues to build," he said.