Revealed! Social Assistance Recipients In Pekalongan Are Not Suitable, This Is Social Minister Risma's Response

Social Minister Tri Rismaharani (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Social Affairs Tri Rismaharini expressed disappointment over the finding of discrepancies in the acceptance of the Family Hope Program assistance and Non-Cash Food Assistance (PKH-BPNT) received by the program beneficiaries in Pekalongan City, Central Java.

"Indeed, there were findings on the issue of basic food assistance, namely that there was a discrepancy between what had to be received worth Rp. 200,000 and the goods they received. Therefore, I was with the team, including the Police Headquarters, to explore this (the case, ed.) reported by Antara, Tuesday, July 27 afternoon.

In the future, he said, the Ministry of Social Affairs will no longer use that method (shopping for social assistance groceries through e-warung) so that beneficiaries can choose to shop according to their needs and shop anywhere.

"The rules are clear, it's not allowed to buy in packages so that beneficiaries can choose according to their needs whether they want to buy eggs or meat, including shopping anywhere with technological tools prepared by the Ministry of Social Affairs," he said. With this technology, electronic stalls will compete in price with ordinary stalls.

"In the future, e-warung with regular stalls will compete because the beneficiaries can choose cheaper basic necessities, anywhere," he said.

He said that currently the Ministry of Social Affairs together with Bank Indonesia and the Financial Services Authority (OJK) were preparing technological tools with the system.

"What is the fate of e-warung? So e-warung must compete with ordinary stalls. It can't then because of certain considerations there is protection (from the government, ed.), it can't because it will violate the principles of democracy and Pancasila," he said.