PT Pos Indonesia Targeted By Minister Of Social Affairs Distributes Social Assistance To 800 Thousand Families Every Day

Minister of Social Affairs Juliari Batubara (Photo: Twitter @juliaribatubara)

JAKARTA - Approaching Eid Al-Fitr, the government through the Ministry of Social Affairs is racing to provide social assistance (bansos) to the community. Together with PT Pos Indonesia, the Ministry of Social Affairs is targeting as many as 8,366 million households to receive assistance no later than the day before Eid or Saturday, May 23.

"The distribution target for this week is until Saturday, one day before Eid, we have locked the target that we will distribute is around 8,366 million households," said Social Minister Juliari P. Batubara in a press conference from the YouTube account of the Presidential Secretariat, Tuesday. , 19 May.

He explained that in order to achieve this target, PT Pos had to be able to distribute aid to 800 thousand families every day.

Juiari added, currently there are 3,371 million heads of households who have received the first phase of cash assistance with a value of Rp. 600 thousand per household.

"The rest, about 8.3 million heads of families minus 3.7 heads of families, means approximately 4.6 million heads of families that we will speed up the distribution this week to Saturday," he explained.

This former member of the DPR RI from the PDI-P Faction said, PT Pos has agreed and will carry out the distribution of social assistance appropriately.

The role of the post office

Juliari also ordered PT Pos to increase the number of counters at the post office to increase the distribution power of social assistance. He also ordered all post offices to increase operating hours.

"Every post office I ask to be open until 10 pm to make payments," he said.

PT Pos Indonesia, he said, must also take advantage of other places so that this social assistance can be quickly reached by the community. This includes utilizing the village and sub-district office offices, and creating new outlets in collaboration with communities in areas that need cash assistance distribution.

Then, PT Pos Indonesia can also use non-permanent facilities such as tents which are built and equipped with tables and chairs to increase queues. However, Juliari reminded that health protocols for preventing COVID-19 must be considered.

"So for this week we hope that by Saturday, up to 8.3 million households can be reached and with these efforts, we can target the distribution of around 800 thousand households per day," he said.

I reviewed the handover of cash assistance at the Post Office Jalan Juanda, Bogor, this morning. Beneficiary residents queued orderly, kept their distance, and wore masks. I hope that with this assistance, people's purchasing power will be maintained until domestic consumption returns to normal. pic.twitter.com/FLlX8gvrko

- Joko Widodo (jokowi) May 13, 2020

The distribution of social assistance is problematic

Previously, President Joko Widodo admitted that there were problems in distributing social assistance to the community amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, he wanted the assistance to reach the recipient immediately without taking a long time.

"It turns out that in the field there are many obstacles and the problem is a convoluted procedural problem," said Jokowi when opening a limited meeting on simplifying procedures for cash assistance and village fund BLT which was broadcast on the Cabinet Secretariat YouTube account, Tuesday, May 19.

In extraordinary conditions such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, he emphasized, there should be no more complicated procedures in the distribution of social assistance. This is because what the community needs right now is the speed of receiving aid.

So, he asked his ministers to simplify the complicated procedure. "I ask that the rules be made as simple as possible, as simple as possible without reducing accountability. So that implementation in the field can be flexible," he said.