Members Of DPRD Ask Surabaya City Government Free Food Program Budget Not To Be Included In Village Funds

SURABAYA - Member of Commission A for Governance Affairs of the Surabaya City DPRD, Imam Syafi'i, asked the city government to not include the village fund for free food aid for the elderly, disabled and orphans.

"That's why it can suck up kelurahan funds of IDR 1 billion to IDR 1.5 billion in each kelurahan," he said, quoted by Antara, Friday, April 22.

Imam said that his party did not agree that the food aid that was originally budgeted for at the Surabaya Social Service (Dinsos) was transferred to the village budget.

According to him, the Ministry of Home Affairs Regulation (Permendagri) Number 130 of 2018 concerning Village Facilities & Infrastructure Development & Community Empowerment in Kelurahan has clearly regulated the allocation of kelurahan funds for physical development programs and community empowerment.

For this reason, Imam requested that the food budget be returned to the Surabaya Social Service so that the portion of the village fund is bigger and more people's proposals are realized.

"It's not because the food is financed by the village fund, then accusations arise that this is just a trick of the city government claiming to have implemented the village fund as ordered by Permendagri 130/2018," he said.

According to him, the amount of village funds is also regulated in Permendagri 130/2018, which is 5 percent of the APBD. According to him, if in Surabaya the APBD reaches Rp. 10.4 trillion, then Rp. 10 trillion alone means Rp. 500 billion.

"If divided by 154 sub-districts, it means up to Rp. 3 to Rp. 3.5 billion per kelurahan," he said.

Several cities, said Imam Syafi'i, have been running urban village funds since 2019, but for Surabaya it has only been implemented in 2020. It's just that, he said, as soon as it was budgeted in the Surabaya 2020 APBD together with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the Head of Tambaksari Surabaya Sub-district, Laksita Rini Sevriani, previously said that the 2022 urban village funds had not been absorbed. For physical development, he continued, it is planned to start in the second quarter.

According to him, his party is still waiting for the revision of the Surabaya Mayor's Regulation (Perwali) regarding the management of urban village funds.

"Currently it is still being revised. Meanwhile, food aid is still running, then the physical one is still in the planning stage. For the physical criteria, roads and canals. If the road is one of the environmental roads, the width is only 2 meters, and it has not been realized. God willing, it can be done realized this year," said Laksita.