DPRD Members: It Is Inappropriate For The Regent Of Jember To Receive The Honorarium For The COVID-19 Funeral

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION/BETWEEN

JEMBER - Honors for four officials in Jember who reached tens of years from the COVID-19 funeral, drew the spotlight.

A member of the Jember DPRD, Tabroni, highlighted the disparity in wages between funeral workers in the field and those received by officials.

"Regarding the funeral of residents who died due to COVID-19, of course, field officers will get the honorarium," Tabroni said, Friday, August 27.

According to him, officials such as regents are not worthy and do not deserve honorariums from COVID-19 funerals. Tabroni asked officials to immediately return the honorarium received

"The question is, does the Regent have the right to receive a recapitulation of the funeral? Of course it is not permissible and inappropriate," he said.

Previously reported, the Regent of Jember Hendy Siswanto and a number of officials within the Jember Regency Government, namely the regional secretary, the Acting Head of BPBD to the Head of Emergency Logistics of BPBD reportedly received honoraria as a team for burial of the bodies of COVID-19 patients.

The honorarium received by each of these officials was IDR 70 million, more than a total of 705 funerals or the number of Jember residents who died from COVID-19 in June 2021, so that the total budget spent for the four officials reached IDR 282 million.

Meanwhile, the Regent of Jember, Hendy Siswanto, acknowledged the honorarium. Hendy admitted that the honorarium for regents and officials has become a regulation. Because these officials carry out the function of monitoring and evaluation (monev) even beyond working hours.

"It is true that I received the honorarium in our capacity as a monitoring and evaluation team," he said.

The Regent of Jember emphasized that the honorarium was directly donated to residents whose families died due to COVID-19.

"Like my salary, I donate to the poor who have been affected by the pandemic," he said.

He said the honorarium received was Rp. 100,000 for each funeral. There is also an honorarium that reaches Rp. 70 million because in June to July there were many cases of death due to COVID-19.

"But we don't expect a large number. Because if that's the case, it means that a lot of people died. We don't want that to happen," he said.