JAKARTA - The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) has joined hands with law enforcement to anticipate and take firm action against potential illegal levies in the process of distributing assistance and building residential houses for disaster victims, including in Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra.
Head of the BNPB Disaster Data, Information, and Communication Center, Abdul Muhari, emphasized the involvement of the National Police and the Prosecutor's Office in the submission letter from the regent and mayor aimed at ensuring that each proposed assistance had a strong legal basis and was justified.
"This is why in the letter of submission of regional leaders we include APH (law enforcement apparatus). If extortion is carried out by thugs, then it is handled by the police, but if it involves government officials, it is reported to the Kajari because it is in the realm of crime," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, March 30.
The statement was made in response to the BNPB's allegation of a collection of Rp3 million from village officials to survivors of disasters in Tetingi Village, Pantan Cuaca District, Gayo Lues Regency, Aceh.
The collection money is intended by the village government apparatus as a guarantee for survivors of disasters to get a residential house as well as a permanent residential land.
The Tetingi village itself is inhabited by 133 families or 418 people who were all affected by flash floods on November 26, 2025. With the note that 33 houses were swept away and 42 other houses were severely damaged so that they had to be relocated to new housing built by the government.
BNPB, according to Abdul, has not received any official reports related to extortion practices from the beneficiary community, although almost 99 percent of refugees in emergency tents have now moved to temporary housing (huntara).
BNPB has placed officials at the Eselon II level or Senior TNI/Polri officers in the field as liaison officers (PIC) for all disaster management processes, from the emergency response phase to rehabilitation and reconstruction.
"I emphasize again, the huntara or huntap was built by the government (center). Not the local government, but the government. Both BNPB, then the Ministry of PU, and the Ministry of PKP, this is what builds the physical huntara and huntap. The local government provides the land and who is the recipient," he said.
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