Supervising Weak Village Establishment

Villages established using problematic procedures in Konawe, Southeast Sulawesi, are still receiving the village funds. Supervision over establishing villages must be heightened.

KOMPAS/SAIFUL RIJAL YUNUS

A Lambuya district official points to Meraka village on a chart listing the district’s villages and village heads on Wednesday (6/11/2019). The village funds registry lists the nonexistent Ulu Meraka village.

KENDARI, KOMPAS -- The investigation is still ongoing into the legality of 101 villages that are receiving the village funds in Konawe regency, Southeast Sulawesi. If each village receives Rp 700 million (US$49.778) per year in funding, then hundreds of billions of rupiah have been disbursed to these villages since 2017.

As previously reported, 117 villages in Konawe were established under three regional regulations issued between 2011 and 2014. However, these regulations are alleged to be problematic, as they are either not registered at the regional legislation body or were issued after the government imposed a moratorium on establishing new villages. Sixteen villages are duplicated across two separate regional regulations, so the final total of irregularly established villages is 101 (Kompas, 12/11/2019).

In 2013, Konawe regency was divided into Konawe and the Konawe Islands. Of the 101 villages deemed problematic, 79 fell under Konawe and the 22 others under the Konawe Islands.

In 2019, 294 Konawe villages, including 78 allegedly problematic ones – minus one village that was deemed ineligible for the funds – received Rp 222 billion in village funds.

The village funds allocated to four villages in Konawe have been withheld since late 2018 because of certain issues.

The four villages were deemed problematic because of a discrepancy in their population data.

"Those villages are Lerehoma, Arombu Utama, Napooha and Wiau. The village funds has not be disbursed to these villages since late 2018," La Ode Syahruddin Kaeba, the provincial coordinator of the villagers’ development and empowerment program and the village innovation program, said in Kendari on Tuesday (12/11/2019).

The four villages were deemed problematic because of a discrepancy in their population data. For instance, Lerehoma has 55 registered families, although Southeast Sulawesi requires new villages to have at least 400 families at the time of establishment. Lerehoma has been receiving village funds since 2017.

Kompas noted on Sunday (10/11/) that less than 20 families live in Lerehoma. It also identified several projects that were financed with the village funds, including gutters, galvanized roofs and solar panels.

KOMPAS/SAIFUL RIJAL YUNUS

A truck passes along a road on Sunday (10/11/2019) past Lerehoma village in Anggaberi district, Konawe regency, Southeast Sulawesi. Lerehoma village is inhabited by only 33 families and was established under a fictitious regulation, Konawe Regency Regulation No. 7/2011, but has been receiving billions of rupiah through the central government’s village funds scheme since 2017.

Modus for violations

Since the village funds program began in 2015, the police, the prosecutor’s office and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) have investigated at least 30 related corruption cases. Most cases involve poor supervision.

The cases include budget absorption without budget output, doctored accountability reports, forged accountability documents and regents cutting village funds or accepting bribes and gratuities from village heads.

KPK prevention deputy Pahala Nainggolan said that the poor supervision was due to a lack of adequate resources and budget. The village funds scheme managed a budget of trillions of rupiah, but lacked supervision and evaluation. The supervision of inspectorate budget allocations from the regional budget was also lacking.

Regencies must not work alone.

Another problem was that regencies were collecting village data without involving the district offices. "Districts must be involved in the system. Regencies must not work alone," Pahala said.

Separately, secretary-general Anwar Sanusi of the Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Ministry said that the ministry had received a recommendation from the KPK to improve the supervision of the village funds in 2015. This included increasing the effectiveness of village supervisors and improving the supervision and evaluation system.

Meanwhile, the ministry also said that the Home Ministry should update its database on villages, which formed the basis for supervisory activities.

KOMPAS/SAIFUL RIJAL YUNUS

Muslimin, 38, a resident of Lerehoma village, shows on Sunday (11/10/2019) the electronic ID card issued under his name several months ago at his residence in Konawe regency, Southeast Sulawesi. Lerehoma was formed under a nonexistent regulation on village formation and establishment, Regional Regulation No. 7/2011, but has been receiving billions of rupiah through the central government’s village funds scheme since 2017.

Village evaluation

Village administration development director general Nata Irawan of the Home Ministry said that field verification was not required in establishing new villages.

"There are 74,000 villages. If we conduct field verifications for them all, it will be difficult," he said.

The regency councils must first conduct field verification when drafting regional regulations to establish new villages. Then, the provincial administrations must cross-check and verify the data before submitting it to the Home Ministry.

The three problematic Konawe regency regulations were still under investigation. "In the event that administrative errors are found, we will remove the villages [from the village database]," Nata said.

It is time to evaluate our villages.

Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Minister Abdul Halim Iskandar dismissed allegations on the existence of fictitious villages, which Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati revealed on 4 Nov. However, the ministry was still awaiting the results of the investigation.

University of Indonesia public administration lecturer Eko Prasojo said that supervision over the establishment of village was poor.

"We are speaking only about the number of villages. We have not mentioned the amount of the village funds [allocations] that must be reassessed. If we allocated Rp 1 billion, how much did a village actually receive? This is another problem. It is time to evaluate our villages," he said.