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ational Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) head Syamsul Maarif on Thursday said that local branches of his organization would start leading relief programs this year.

Syamsul said that his office would direct resources to local agencies based on directives from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who wanted local governments to lead disaster relief efforts.

“Regional governments and the BNPB would help mobilize resources to the local agencies,” he said during BNPB’s national coordination meeting in Jakarta.

Indonesia suffered at least 1,598 natural disasters throughout 2011, killing at least 834 people.

In the majority of disasters, the emergency response was slow due to bureaucratic redundancies, human errors and a lack of skills from relief workers.

Local disaster mitigation agency officials said that there was confusion as to who should handle relief efforts.

BNPB’s standard operating procedure states that local agencies would handle a disaster when it affected less than 10 families. The regional government would step in if the disaster affected between 10 and 20 families, while the BNPB would dispatch relief teams only when a disaster affected more than 20 families.

Syamsul said that the BPNB has yet update the guidelines for some new disaster mitigation agencies.

Currently, there are 104 regencies that have no local disaster mitigation agency.

Local politics also complicated the problem.

“I was told that debates between local governments and local councils over the establishment of disaster mitigation offices have prevented the creation of such agencies,” he said.

The BNPB decided to distribute resources to areas that have local disaster mitigation agency.

“We chose not to give rehabilitation funds for regencies that haven’t established a local disaster mitigation agency [BPBD] yet.”

Paulus Prayitno, an official from the Jepara BPBD, a regency on Central Java’s north coast, said that local administrations thought that funding for disaster preparedness programs was wasteful.

“They haven’t thought that it is important. It’s a matter of mind-set,” he said.

Earlier, the BNPB said that red tape was the main problem in mitigation efforts.

The agency has withheld funds because provincial and municipal administrations fought over control of the money.

There has also been the problem of accountability.

“We need to address the issue. Don’t let corruption run rampant after the disaster is over,” he said.

The BNPB initially received a budget of Rp 668 billion (US$74 million) in 2011, which then rose to Rp 1.33 trillion due to special rehabilitation projects in West Sumatra. In 2012, it is expected to receive Rp 995 billion. (rpt)