JAKARTA - Social Minister Saifullah Yusuf emphasized the commitment to be clean from budget irregularities, by issuing a circular letter prohibiting all levels in the Ministry of Social Affairs from meeting with vendors or company representatives outside official forums to prevent collusion or "collusion".
"I have issued a letter, not a single member of the Ministry of Social Affairs who meets with vendors or company leaders who participate in tenders in the Ministry of Social Affairs, unless the meeting is in an official forum," said the minister, who is close to being called Gus Ipul, reported by ANTARA, Tuesday, May 5.
Saifullah stated that this step was taken to close the lobby gaps in the procurement of goods and services (PBJ) in the ministry environment, especially related to the People's School strategic program.
The policy is considered to be a real effort by the Ministry of Social Affairs to abandon past practices that often tarnish the name of the institution.
In addition, the Minister of Social Affairs also ensured that the Ministry of Social Affairs also took preventive measures by requesting special assistance from the Law Enforcement Agency (APH) in every process of procurement of goods and services.
"We need assistance from the Attorney General's Office and the Police. We have a special request to the Attorney General and the National Police Chief to provide assistance in procurement in the Ministry of Social Affairs so that the process is very strict," he explained.
Regarding the issue of tilting on social media regarding the alleged price inflation (mark-up), Saifullah emphasized that his party was open to criticism and audits from authorized institutions. However, he ensured that if there was strong evidence of irregularities, the ministry would be the first party to report it to the law enforcement.
"If there is evidence, we will be the first party to report to law enforcement. Don't contaminate the President's strategic program with practices that are no longer in their time," he said.
As for the procurement of equipment for students of the APBN People's School for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, including shoes, it has been fully distributed to around 32 thousand students in various regions.
Every student of the People's School receives four pairs of shoes consisting of daily shoes (sneakers), sports shoes, daily uniform shoes (PDH), and field uniform shoes (PDL).
All of these items are domestic products as a form of commitment to the Domestic Component Level (TKDN).
Based on the realization data, the price of PDL student shoes has a ceiling of Rp700,000 with an auction realization price of Rp640,000. Meanwhile, for daily shoes for SMP and SMA levels, the realization price reaches Rp300,000 from the ceiling of Rp500,000, and the SD level is worth Rp250,000.
"Yes, it's for 2025, yes, that's why this year's allocation for students is around 32 thousand, but we spend it up to almost 40 thousand pairs just in case there are children's shoes that need it, what is the replacement because it is damaged and so on. So for 2025 everything has been allocated, yes, it has been distributed in its entirety to the students of the people's schools. Well, you can see it at the people's schools, right, you can check it directly there," he said.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
