Secretary General Of The Ministry Of Social Affairs Reveals Too Much To Pay For Covid-19 Social Assistance Of Up To IDR 74 Billion

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JAKARTA - The Secretary General of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Hartono, acknowledged that the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) found that it was too expensive to pay for the provision of social assistance (bansos) for COVID-19 to Rp74 billion.

"There are BPKP findings related to the reasonableness of the price, namely that there is too much to pay, in the BPKP report there are around Rp74 billion," Hartono said at the Corruption Crime Court (Tipikor) Jakarta, Wednesday, May 5.

Hartono became a witness for the defendant, former Social Minister Juliari Batubara, who was charged with accepting bribes of IDR 32.482 billion from 109 companies providing social assistance for COVID-19.

"I don't know exactly how expensive it is anywhere, but it has something to do with the 'item' price of the basic goods, and the price of the 'goodybag," said Hartono.

With the finding of an overpayment of Rp.74 billion, BPKP asked the vendors to return the overpaid.

"Currently, the follow-up to the audit results from the BPKP is in coordination with the Inspectorate General to take joint steps with the Director General of Social Security Protection to ask for returns from vendors, some have returned but some have not," added Hartono.

According to Hartono, the Ministry of Social Affairs was also asked to coordinate with the Attorney General's Office for the overpayment collection.

"Exactly I don't know how many have been returned, but some of them said they needed mediation with the BPKP and some had not returned it at all," said Hartono.

In fact, in the Audit Result Report (LHP), BPKP ordered that the refund is no later than 60 working days from the issuance of the LHP.

"60 days have passed and now it is from the Attorney General's Office to help follow up on the results of the investigation," said Hartono.

As is known, there are 12 stages of distribution of basic food assistance from April to November 2020 with a budget value of Rp. 6.84 trillion with a total of 22.8 million packages of basic foodstuffs.