BPK Finds Thousands Of Covid-19 Social Assistance Recipients In Jember Not On Target

ILLUSTRATION / BPK Building (ANTARA)

JEMBER - The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) found that thousands of recipients of COVID-19 social assistance in Jember Regency, East Java, were not on target. This data is based on reports on the results of compliance checks on spending on procurement of goods / services in 2019 and spending on handling COVID-19 in 2020.

The report on the results of the examination had also been received by the Jember Regency DPRD, and the BPK concluded that the distribution of social assistance in the context of handling COVID-19 in the local district was not supported by adequate data collection, and not entirely supported by evidence of accountability.

"We have received the BPK report totaling 307 pages and the results are quite surprising," said Deputy Chairman of the Jember DPRD Ahmad Halim in Jember quoted by Antara, Sunday, January 3.

According to him, the BPK conclusion stated that the Jember Regency Government did not carry out spending on procurement of goods / services in 2019 and handling COVID-19 in 2020 according to applicable regulations in all material matters.

The distribution of social assistance in the context of handling COVID-19 in Jember is not supported by data collection and proof of accountability, so that the recipients of COVID-19 unexpected expenditure benefits which are determined by the district head's decree (SK) are not entirely valid.

"From the BPK report, there were 3,783 population identification numbers (NIK) of COVID-19 social assistance recipients recorded as having died in the population data," he said.

In addition, he continued, the BPK also found that 1,670 KTP owners had moved outside Jember from 2011 to 2019, then 326 NIKs with civil servant (PNS) jobs.

Assistance that was not on target was also found as many as 91 NIK with the work of TNI members and as many as 20 NIK with the work of the Police.

Ahmad Halim explained that thousands of NIK owners were included in the social assistance recipients of 228,541 people for handling COVID-19 in Jember Regency.

"The BPK findings are an indication that the Jember Covid-19 Handling Task Force is very poor, it is even suspected of showing irregularities because the aid was not on target," he said.

Halim explained that the spending for handling COVID-19 for the 2020 fiscal year Jember Regency Government was carried out not in accordance with applicable regulations in all material matters, so this was the conclusion of the BPK.

Previously, the Jember Regency Government allocated a budget for handling COVID-19 in Jember of IDR 479.4 billion in 2020 and this budget was recorded as the second largest at the district level in Indonesia.