Asked To Monitor Government Programs In The Middle Of The COVID-19 Pandemic, KPK: We Are Working On All Programs

Gedung KPK (Muhammad Iqbal / VOI)

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of Commission IX of the Indonesian Parliament Melkiades Laka Lena asked the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to pay attention to all government programs in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. It is not just the Pre-Employment Card program that is being monitored more deeply.

This is because the government has disbursed IDR 905.1 trillion for handling COVID-19 which is divided into a number of programs. So he hopes that all of these programs must be considered by related parties, including the KPK.

"While the Corruption Eradication Commission has a spirit of prevention, help all clusters carried out in the context of this COVID, in this socio-economic field we give equal attention," Melki said in a webinar on the Zoom platform, Saturday, June 27.

He considered that this needed to be done so that no state money from the community was lost and could not be accounted for. According to him, this kind of prevention is also better than making arrests.

"We avoid losing public money instead of arresting people who steal people's money. This is a good idea from the KPK during Pak Firli's period," he said.

Responding to the request, the KPK said that it has indeed turned its eyes to all government programs, not just the Pre-Work Card program.

He explained that the KPK is currently carrying out a study on several things in the health and social security sectors.

"The Research and Development of the Corruption Eradication Commission during this pandemic period is not only (conducting studies, red) of the Pre-employment Card. So this Rp. 695.2 trillion is our work. From Health Rp. 87 trillion we enter, then from social security there is Rp. 110 to Rp. 120 trillion we also enter, "said the Director of Research and Development of the Corruption Eradication Commission, Wawan Wardiana in the same discussion.

In addition, he said, the KPK was also conducting studies related to assistance provided by the government to MSMEs and corporations in the midst of a pandemic.

It's just that, Wawan said, the results of the study would not be issued all at once. "This is just one, the Pre-employment Card. The only one will come out later," he said.

He said that this study must be done. So that no funds have been channeled by the government as aid or for handling the COVID-19 pandemic, it is precisely the wrong target.

So he hopes that all KPK recommendations related to the Pre-Work Card program can be carried out by related parties. He also hopes that all parties can maintain transparency and accountability.

"I still hope that we are enough from the prevention team to do this. Don't move towards prosecution, no. I hope that enough friends are prevented," he said.

Previously, the KPK had given seven points of recommendation to the government regarding the implementation of the Pre-Work Card program. This recommendation was given, after this anti-graft agency conducted a study and found a number of problems.

The seven recommendation points are:

First, the KPK recommends that the targeted participants do not need to register online to become program participants but be contacted by the executive management. The reason is, in its study, this anti-graft agency found only a few workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic who had registered themselves into this program.

Second, the KPK suggested that the face recognition feature should not be used, but simply using the NIK.

Third, the KPK encourages the government to ask for a legal opinion from the Attorney General's Office regarding the collaboration of eight digital platforms in the Kartua Prakerja program whether it is included in the provision of government goods and services or not.

Fourth, the KPK emphasized that digital platforms must not have conflicts of interest with training providers.

Fifth, curation of training materials and online feasibility should involve competent parties in the training area and be written in the form of technical instructions.

Sixth, training materials identified as free training through the internet must be excluded from the list of training provided. The results of the KPK study showed that of the 327 samples of training provided, 89 percent were available for free on the internet.

Finally, the KPK asked that the implementation of online training must have a control mechanism so that it is not fictitious.