IO – A large amount of information on the provision of social assistance (Bansos) from the central and regional governments is unfortunately off-target because of the inaccurate and outdated data. For that reason, Chairman of MPR RI Bambang Soesatyo encourages the government, through the Ministry of Social Affairs, together with Social Services to cooperate with village officials (RT/RW) and improve the data collection mechanism, synchronizing recipient data carried out by the Communication, Informatics and Statistics Office, so that the data on social assistance recipients can be accounted for and its distribution right on target. “We encourage the government through Statistics Indonesia (BPS) to be able to evaluate and improve data on social assistance recipients, so that recipients of social assistance are evenly distributed, right on target, and beneficial to the community, especially those affected by the pandemic,” said Bambang in his statement, Tuesday (13/10).
According to him, the realization of the assistance and budget available to the public must be appropriate, as a form of transparency and accountability following the mandate of Law Number 14 of 2008 concerning Public Information Openness, as well as ensuring that government assistance programs to handle the COVID-19 pandemic run according to the system and are not distorted.
The former Chairman of the Indonesian Parliament has encouraged central and local governments to work together with the COVID-19 Alert Village Task Force in each region to supervise the distribution of social assistance, so that the social assistance is evenly distributed, right on target, and in accordance with the assistance provided by the government. “Encouraging the government to involve the community in monitoring the social assistance distribution, and ask the public to report to The Illegal Levy Eradication Task Force (Satgas Saber Pungli) in the event of illegal levies when distributing social assistance to beneficiary families, as an effort to prevent illegal levies at the time of distribution,” Bamsoet conveyed.
The man who is also known as Bamsoet did not forget to express his appreciation to the Ministry of Social Affairs for providing social assistance to the community amidst economic pressures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, he encouraged the government to keep budgeting for social assistance for the community until the corona pandemic ends. Previously, the Ministry of Social Affairs acknowledged that there were still people who were considered well off who received social assistance because there was an inclusive / exclusive error in the Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS). The procedures for correcting the data must go through the RT, RW, Village Head to mayor/regent and governor.
However, the Ministry of Social Affairs believes that the number is not large because based on the DTKS data developed by the Ministry of Social Affairs. Since 2011, there are 92.3 million people or 29 million families registered as “social assistance recipients”. The special assistance for the impact of COVID-19 was channeled by the Ministry of Social Affairs through the Jabodetabek Staple Food Program for 19 million beneficiary families (KPM) and cash assistance for non-Jabodetabek KPM cash assistance totaling 9 million KPM. (Dan)