Social Assistance Money Will Be Disbursed Immediately, The Anti-Corruption Commission Investigators Say There Is Still A Chane For Corruption

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JAKARTA - Inactive Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigator Andre Dedy Nainggolan said the distribution of cash assistance during Emergency Community Activity Restrictions (PPKM) could still be corrupted. Because perpetrators are always looking for new loopholes.

"We know that crimes are always looking for new ways, the perpetrators of corruption to take advantage", said Andre in an online discussion quoted from YouTube Friends of Indonesia Corruption Watch broadcast, Wednesday, July 7.

In terms of the mechanism of giving, he considered this to have opened up opportunities for corrupt practices. The reason is that not all beneficiaries have bank accounts. So it still has to be channeled through third parties such as the neighborhood units, and village heads.

This then leads to the practice of corruption because aid may not be fully delivered.

"Because the small community sometimes only thinks that what is important is that I get it. It's okay if it's not up to 100 percent, it's okay to accept and use it to live life", he said.

Andre said that the distribution of cash assistance really depended on the integrity of the officials. Namely in carrying out the program as well as supervision from related parties.

"For example, this time it's an executive program, it's the legislature's job to supervise it. But it is also necessary for the participation of the community to see it even though they are sometimes not aware that sometimes their rights are being corrupted", he said.

Furthermore, he mentioned the accuracy and updating of data on the recipients of cash assistance. According to him, data accuracy is very influential so that the assistance provided by the government can be distributed on target.

"Because I was worried, in May the Minister of Social Affairs stated that there were 21 million data that had to be put to sleep. Has the data been updated now? We don't know", he said.

Previously reported, Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Sri Mulyani admitted that she received a special message from President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to accelerate the distribution of social assistance to the public. This is in connection with the Emergency PPKM on July 3-20.

For information, this year's Hope Family Program (PKH) social assistance is budgeted at IDR 28.31 trillion, targeting 10 million Beneficiary Families (KPM). Meanwhile, the realization until the close of the first semester of 2021 is IDR 13.96 trillion.

Meanwhile, for basic food cards, the acceleration of distribution this month is intended to meet the target of 18.8 million KPMs.

The allocation of basic food card funds for the 2021 period amounted to IDR 40.19 trillion, with the realization until the first half of IDR 17.75 trillion to 15.9 million KPMs.

The distribution of emergency PPKM cash assistance will target 10 million recipients in 34 provinces based on the previous period's social assistance data. The aid index is IDR 300 thousand per month which is given in July and August.