Muddled Data Causes Social Aid Confusion

The social aid budget for people impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic has been adequate. However, unsynchronized data, ranging from regional to central governments, have made the distribution of social aid confusing.

KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo inspects the distribution of aid packages to underprivileged communities affected by COVID-19 in Johar Baru subdistrict, Johar Baru district, Central Jakarta, on Monday (18/5/2020). The aid distribution began on April 20 and involved PT Pos Indonesia, online motorcycle taxi operators, the Karang Taruna Youth Organization, Pasar Tani (Farmers Market), and traditional motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The government has promised that residents impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic will receive social aid until the end of December. However, the distribution over two months (April-May) has been marred by many problems.

The issues cover recipients who have only received social aid once, delayed aid disbursement by regional administrations’ data verifications and distribution going to wrong targets. Residents should have obtained the aid three times (April-June) or at least twice (April-May). What happened was they received aid only once.

The aid distribution problem was discovered among others in Talok village, Kresek district, Tangerang regency, Banten. Social aid recipients in the village have only been allocated the aid fund one time since April. They received cash social aid (BST) from the Social Affairs Ministry (Kemensos) worth Rp600,000 per family.

The distribution over two months (April-May) has been marred by many problems.

Talok village head Bunyamin said no families had received BST on a routine basis in April-May, as pledged by the government. “Of the 852 BST recipient families according to the beneficiary data from PT Pos, all of them belonged to the first-period (April) aid recipients. There has been no more aid since then,” he said on Wednesday (3/6/2020).

Bunyamin added that the village fund direct cash aid (BLT) in April for 154 families in his village was also only received on 29 and 30 May.

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KOMPAS/WAWAN H PRABOWO

Officers prepare to transport social aid packages that were later distributed symbolically by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to communities affected by COVID-19 in Johar Baru subdistrict, Johar Baru district, Central Jakarta, on Monday (18/5/2020). The distribution of the aid began on April 20 and involved PT Pos Indonesia, online motorcycle taxi operators, the Karang Taruna YouthOrganization, Pasar Tani (Farmers Market) and traditional motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers.

Of the social aid recipients, some families were found to be better off. This has aroused envy among local residents. One of the BST recipients in Talok village with a very favorable economic condition is Banjar, 41. His house is solidly built. His Toyota Fortuner and Honda Brio cars are parked in his garage. This stature is far different from the other village residents.

Banjar said his family had obtained BST because his wife Tunenah was listed as a recipient of the aid. As a fish trader while his wife works in a factory, Banjar said his income was sufficient to meet daily needs. His economic condition has also further improved, enabling him to buy cars. But he did not reject the BST. A sticker marking the Covid-19-impacted recipient of aid was attached to a wall of his house.

“Well, I was just granted, the data were there. There’s no choice. It’s a fortune,” added Banjar.

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Meanwhile, in Candali village, Rancabungur district, Bogor regency, during April only two families received BST from Kemensos. In fact, in this village, based on data in the Social Welfare Information System -New Generation (SIKS-NG) application, 542 households are recorded in the social welfare integrated data (DTKS) of Kemensos.

“Just imagine, only two families got it (BST from Kemensos). Actually in Candali we have proposed 1,042 families,” said Candali village head Madyani.

Fortunately there’s social aid in the form of 30 kilograms of rice per family from the Bogor regency administrations for 338 families in this village. The village fund BLT from the Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Ministry (Kemendesa PDTT) for 188 began to be distributed in May. Totally there are only 468 families already covered by the social aid out of the 1,042 families proposed by Candali village.

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KOMPAS/ADITYA PUTRA PERDANA

People apply for cash social assistance (BST) from the Social Affairs Ministry at the office of PT Pos Indonesia in Semarang, Central Java, on Thursday (21/5/2020). Social Affairs Minister Juliari P Batubara was in attendance, and assistance was given to 94,803 beneficiary families.

Seven types

At present there are seven types of social aid, cash and basic staples, provided by the ministry and regional administrations for residents affected by Covid-19. The aid has been distributed since April, when large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) were enforced.

Kemensos makes available four types of aid while Kemendesa PDTT provides the village fund BLT. The total budget amounts to Rp 64.67 trillion.

Apart from the central government, provincial and regency/city administrations also supply Covid-19 social aid. The West Java provincial administration, for instance, provides Rp8.2 trillion.

Yet the distribution of social aid is not smoothly enjoyed by residents. This condition is worsened as the DTKS used by the government as the data base to verify would-be aid recipients proposed by the village apparatus and neighborhood units/communities (RT/RW) as well as provincial administrations are not yet updated. So far, not all regional administrations have updated the DTKS containing data on 40 percent Indonesia families that are very poor and prone to poverty.

Not all poor residents impacted by Covid-19 are covered by social aid.

Head of the Social Affairs Office (Dinsos) of Tangerang regency, Ujat Sudrajat, said the Tangerang regency administration had never updated the DTKS. The Tangerang regency’s Dinsos data are still the DTKS issued by the central government in 2015. As a result, the distribution of some social aid has missed its right targets as in Talok village.

The Social Affairs Office of Bogor regency is also going to update the DTKS in 2020 by allocating a Rp2.7 billion budget. The data updating is threatened with cancellation as the fund will be relocated for the supply of social aid.

Depok city, which has updated the DTKS since 2019, continues to face confusion in the distribution during April-May. Not all poor residents impacted by Covid-19 are covered by social aid.

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

Boxes of food wait to be distributed to online motorcycle taxi drivers by the Social Service Office of the West Jakarta administration at the West Jakarta Mayoral Command Post on Wednesday (27/5/2020). The food packages will be distributed to five areas under the Jakarta administration. Each area will receive a total of 11,000 packages.

One roof

According to West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil, residents think the social aid is distributed under one roof, actually there are many channels for the aid from Kemensos, Kemendesa PDTT and regional administrations. The aid from the central government comes after that from regional administrations.

Consequently, the groups of recipients whose social aid is not yet allotted are protesting.

“I have communicated in line with the (bureaucratic) hierarchy, please put (the social aid) under one roof. But up to this day it hasn’t been realized yet,” said Ridwan.

Erroneous Covid-19 social aid data verifications have also occurred in Jakarta although the DTKS of Jakarta are most routinely updated. One of the mistakes involved the luxury housing complex of RW 007, Kelapa Gading Barat subdistrict, North Jakarta. Residents in this area were provided with basic staples from the Jakarta provincial government and the same staples from presidential aid. “As all residents in this RW are wealthy families, the whole social aid was returned with an official report,” said an RW 007 officer of Kelapa Gading subdistrict, Nugroho.

Secretary General of Kemensos Hartono Laras stated all regional administration should keep referring to the DTKS in distributing Covid-19 related social aid. Nonetheless, he acknowledged the presence of invalid data for having not yet been revalidated by regional administrations.