Village Head In Bolaang Mongondow, South Sulawesi Gets Cash Social Assistance, Social Minister Risma Blames Local Government

Social Minister Tri Rismaharini (Photo: kemensos.go.id)

JAKARTA - Social Minister Tri Rismaharini responded to the findings of village heads in Bolaang Mangondow Regency, South Sulawesi who received cash social assistance (bansos).

Risma considered that the inaccurate targeting of social assistance recipients, such as targeting the Head of Ambang Dua Village, Bolaang Timur District, Bolaang Mongondow Regency, was the responsibility of the local government (Pemda).

"The local government and its staff up to the village/kelurahan level have full authority to determine who deserves to receive assistance and who doesn't," Risma was quoted as saying on the official website of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Thursday, August 2.

Risma explained that the updating of aid recipients registered in the integrated social welfare data (DTKS) is regulated in Law Number 13 of 2021 concerning Handling the Poor.

In this regulation, updating DTKS is under the authority of the district/city government. This is contained in Articles 8, 9, and 10 which essentially mandates that data updating is a tiered process assigned to district/city governments.

“Updating DTKS is a regional authority according to the provisions in Law Number 13/2011. The process starts from the village deliberation or kelurahan deliberation. Then gradually go up," said Risma.

"So, the Ministry of Social Affairs does not carry out direct data collection. The Ministry of Social Affairs is tasked with determining data whose data updating process is carried out by the regions. The problem is, there are still district/city governments that are lacking or even not actively implementing updates,” he continued.

In this case, the Ministry of Social Affairs has checked and confirmed that the name of the Ambang Dua Sangadi Village Head is indeed listed as a recipient of cash social assistance (BST).

Now, the Ministry of Social Affairs has removed the name in question from the list of recipients. For this reason, Risma reminded the regional government and its staff to be active and seriously monitor the data updating process.

"The poverty data is dynamic. Some have moved, died, some may have improved their economy so they are no longer eligible to receive it. There are also recipients from people close to the village head. Well, the Bolmo case is the village head himself. under control," he said.