Old data disrupts cash aid delivery

Dian Kuswandini ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 09/06/2008 11:28 AM  |  National

The use of old social data on poor families has resulted in the cancellation of 1.337 million direct cash assistance (BLT) cards distributed during the first part of this year's BLT program.

"The distribution list used for the first phase of the BLT program was based on data collected by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2005, and has not been updated yet," BPS director of census and survey methodology Hamonangan Ritonga, said here Friday.

He said the old data did not reflect changes, including deaths, relocations and arrivals of unknown residents, leading to the cancellation of some BLT cards.

"Some 23.83 percent of the 1.337 million BLT cards were registered under the names of dead people, 17.11 percent to residents who already moved to other areas and 6.31 percent were attributed to people who were unknown locally," he added.

Ritonga said 33.64 percent of the canceled BLT cards reflected recipients who were no longer entitled to the cash aid program as they were no longer in the category of "poor families". While another 0.19 percent belonged to already registered people.

"The BPS is still updating the data and is expected to complete it by December this year to support the proper distribution of the cash aid," he said, adding that the new data was expected to provide a clearer map of the distribution of poverty nationally.

Ritonga said, the canceled cards would be transferred to other recipients, amounting to about 1.088 million residents. However, the BPS still needed to verify them first.

"We're still completing the verification of eligible recipients at the moment," he said, adding the verification was the most difficult part of the cash aid program, as it involved some remote areas in the eastern part of Indonesia.

"Besides BPS's role in data verification, state postal company PT Pos Indonesia will also hold discussions with subdistrict heads on the identification of new recipients for undistributed funds," he added.

The government began the BLT program on May 25 this year, targeting some 19 million households nationwide. The government appointed PT Pos to distribute a total of Rp 5.71 trillion (US$610.7 million) cash aid through its branches across the country.

PT Pos head of financial services department, Ida Bagus Nurmantara, said the cash aid distribution for this year's first period reached 83.88 percent in some 400 municipalities and regencies.

"The percentage is equal to some 15.952 million poor residents," he said.

He said there were 36 municipalities and regencies that had not distributed the cash aid yet, due to the recent regional elections in their areas. These 36 municipalities and regencies would distribute the cash aid during the second phase of the BLT program, scheduled for the last two weeks of September.

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