JAKARTA - MBG Watch Advocacy Member and Transparency International Indonesia (TII) researcher Agus Sarwono assessed that the change in the leadership of the National Nutrition Agency (BGN) has not had a significant impact on improving the governance of Free Nutritious Food.
On June 2, 2026, Dadan Hindayana was removed from his position as Head of BGN, and was replaced by Nanik S. Deyang. Dadan and his two deputies were named as suspects by the Attorney General's Office in the MBG governance corruption case, including the procurement of thousands of electric motorcycles.
"I think there will be no change (in governance), because the potential for conflicts of interest in BGN is still quite large. Mrs. Nanik is leading one of the foundations that manages the MBG kitchen," said Agus when talking to Eddy Wijaya in the EdShareOn podcast which aired on Wednesday, July 1, 2026.
Nanik's name is said to have been dragged into a conflict of interest after the lawyer for former MBG Deputy Head Sony Sanjaya said that the politician born in Madiun was affiliated with several MBG kitchens in his hometown, also in Tapos and Karangasem.
However, Nanik denied it. Considering the alleged conflict of interest, Agus proposed that MBG operations be temporarily suspended for the audit process. "Hopefully, there will be a moratorium first because we see many problems in MBG governance," he said.
TII itself has launched a corruption risk study in the MBG program on June 30, 2025. The TII study found that MBG, although the program framework is good, has many governance issues.
Starting from the absence of regulations and baseline, high conflict of interest, and the quality of incompetent bureaucrats. No wonder the risk of corruption is very large. Until now, for example, there has been no transparency from BGN in the selection process of the Nutrition Fulfillment Service Unit (SPPG), as well as the benchmark for the success of the program.
The rules for granting incentives, according to Agus, need to be revised. The same incentive rules of Rp. 6 million per kitchen must be reviewed. Agus assessed that this kind of rule should be revised first. He gave an example in India, the MBG-type program is decentralized. School principals in India serve as managers, with a management team that can be diverse. Starting from the school community, parents of students, and supervisors.
The allocation of the budget in the BGN is also considered unproductive. For example, there are non-essential procurements such as socks, shoe polish, television, and electric motorcycles.
"What is the urgency of SPPG having an electric motorcycle? Can't ompreng (MBG food) be transported by motorcycle," he explained. Agus said that if the MBG budget of Rp. 268 trillion was distributed to 18.2 million heads of households who were included in the 1-5 poverty desil, each family could get Rp. 1.2 million per month.
Therefore, according to Agus, it is necessary to temporarily suspend the implementation of MBG to evaluate its management.
"If the car breaks down because the driver is sick, then go to the workshop first. The engine is fine, it just works. Currently, BGN is chaotic institutionally, because the program is designed not to serve the public. The technical gap is also large. So it's better to change the design first before continuing the implementation," he said.
MBG Needs to be Redesigned, Involve SchoolsThe arrest of the former Head of the National Nutrition Agency Dadan Hindayana and two of his deputies in the MBG governance corruption case was considered by Agus as a signal for the need to improve the baseline and design of the program.
"There must be a radicalization of design. Stop the pattern of distributing SPPG kitchen wear," he told Eddy Wijaya in the EdShareOn podcast which aired on Wednesday, July 1, 2026.
Agus said investors would not be harmed if MBG carried out a moratorium to evaluate its implementation. This is because the SPPG building has been rented, as well as the ompreng (food container) and transportation, from BGN.
"That's why people are angry if this program is stopped, it's not the parents of children who receive MBG, but the SPPG kitchen managers," he said.
Another thing that needs to be regulated again is the allocation of the SPPG. Agus said, what should be intervened is the area that has nutritional problems, especially the 3T area (behind, leading, outermost), or islands. "West Java, whose stunting figure is only 15%, the SPPG reaches six thousand. Meanwhile, Papua (which reaches 30%) only has hundreds of SPPG," he said.
According to Agus, MBG should not be managed by SPPG, but by a community of residents involving parents of students and the school. Decentralization through this community is important to determine who are the students who deserve the benefits of MBG. Agus sees, many schools whose parents are economically able, but cannot refuse MBG so that the food distributed is kind of useless.
Who is Eddy Wijaya, this is his profileEddy Wijaya is a podcaster born on August 17, 1972. Through the YouTube account @EdShareOn, Eddy interviewed many national figures ranging from state officials, legal experts, political experts, national politicians, to local celebrities.
The man with a right cheek dimple is also a nationalist who is an activist for the marginalized and social observers by helping the community through the Wijaya Peduli Bangsa Foundation.
He is also active in the field of sports by serving as the Chairman of the Indonesian Equestrian Sports Association (Pordasi) Pacu and also served as Deputy General Chairman of the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) East Jakarta. Eddy also served as an Advisor to the Indonesian Chinese Social Association, 2022-2026.
His ideas were formed because of his hard work to be independent from the age of 13 to be successful as he is now. For Eddy, the world of work is not as smooth as imagined, failure and rejection are common. This is what makes him hold on to the tagline "Success is just a matter of time". (ADV)
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)
