Ministry Of Manpower Evaluates 2021 BSU Distribution Regarding Distribution And Possible Area Coverage Expansion

Director General of PHI and Social Security Ministry of Manpower Indah Anggoro Putri (center) during the 2021 BSU Evaluation activity in Jakarta, Friday, September 24 (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Manpower (Kemnaker) has evaluated the 2021 Wage Subsidy Assistance Program (BSU) regarding distribution, constraints, and possibilities for expanding regional coverage and accelerating its distribution.

"This evaluation is important to increase the percentage of BSU recipients in 2021 and improve the quality of the BSU program," said the Ministry of Manpower's Director General of Industrial Relations and Social Security (PHI and Social Security) Indah Anggoro Putri in a statement received in Jakarta, reported by Antara, Friday, September 24.

The Director-General of PHI and Social Security said that according to the direction of the Minister of Manpower Ida Fauziyah, the 2021 BSU disbursement, which has so far entered the fifth stage of distribution, was carried out only through an account with the Association of State-Owned Banks (Himbara).

Indah explained that the total data for BSU recipients sent by BPJS Ketenagakerjaan was 7,748,630 prospective recipients. After going through the data matching process, BSU has distributed 4,911,200 workers who meet the requirements.

The total funds disbursed until September 24, 2021, are Rp4.9 trillion.

During the distribution of BSU through Himbara's account, various problems have also been found, such as communication between banks at the head office and branches that are out of sync, which has resulted in the activation process being unable to be carried out quickly.

"Second, the limited resources of banks in the service of activation of new accounts collectively," she said.

In addition, there are also issues of channel failure for existing accounts even though verification and validation have been carried out by the bank before being designated as BSU recipients by the KPA and the lack of bank dissemination to BSU recipient workers regarding the BSU distribution mechanism.

There are also companies that refuse to receive BSU funds for their employees because of the lack of socialization of the criteria for BSU recipients.

"Sixth, the weak coordination and socialization between BPJS TK Central and branch offices and BPJS TK and Bank Himbara in the implementation of BSU distribution," said Indah.

She added that all the problems evaluated came from public complaints to the PHI through social media and private network messages.

The PHI team, she stressed, was of the view that this public complaint should receive serious attention to be followed up.