Sri Mulyani Ensures Maximum Education Budget Absorption

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani (Photo: Screenshot of the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture's Youtube screen)

JAKARTA - Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani, revealed that the education endowment fund is a government initiative to ensure that budget absorption can be achieved properly. This is because the mandatory law requires that 20 percent of total state spending be allocated to the education sector.

Challenges then arise during implementation in the field. The education budget, which is mostly channeled to local governments, is considered not effective enough. In fact, the portion of 20 percent of state spending reaches a value of up to hundreds of trillions.

"The first time the idea was to create an education endowment fund was at that time because there was a 20 percent mandate that did not meet the readiness to use or spend it optimally and efficiently, especially without corruption", she said when speaking at the Launching of Merdeka Learning on Monday, June 27.

For this reason, her staff as state financial managers then take strategic steps to deal with the challenges that occur.

"We at the Ministry of Finance then took the initiative to build an education endowment fund so that the money is not always allocated", she said.

The Minister of Finance also ensures that the government has a high commitment to advancing aspects of human resources so that the level of community welfare can further develop.

“The point is that the government is very concerned about the quality and accreditation of universities. We want to really think about how to make policies to improve the quality of human resources", said Minister Sri Mulyani.

For information, Indonesia currently has an Education Fund Management Institute (LPDP) which is tasked with administering an education endowment fund. The Ministry of Finance's special mission vehicles (SMV) institution has been initiated by Sri Mulyani in 2009 when she was still a minister in the era of President SBY.

Meanwhile, as of March 31, 2022, the total managed fund of LPDP has reached IDR 99.1 trillion and an additional IDR 20 trillion is planned for this year.