T

he Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Ministry has asked the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to help monitor the transfer next year of Rp 70 trillion intended for the country'€™s 73,000 villages.

After a meeting with KPK commissioners on Thursday, Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Minister Marwan Jafar said the antigraft body had agreed to the plan and that the two institutions would start working together next year when the government will disburse around Rp 9.2 trillion of the total fund.

'€œEach village will receive Rp 1.4 billion in installments beginning next year. Details of the KPK'€™s supervision of the budget will be discussed in subsequent meetings,'€ Marwan said at the KPK headquarters after submitting his wealth reports to the commission on Thursday.

He explained that in the 2015 state budget, the government had allocated Rp 700 trillion to regional administrations.

'€œThe village fund accounts for 10 percent of the Rp 700 trillion budget for regional administrations. That means that villages get around Rp 70 trillion in total. It'€™s a huge amount of money, so it'€™s important for us to work with the KPK to make sure the disbursements run smoothly,'€ said Marwan, a member of the National Awakening Party (PKB).

Marwan said that the fund would be disbursed in three stages: 50 percent in the first stage and 30 percent and 20 percent in the following two stages, adding that all village heads should establish village-owned companies to manage the funds.

The direct transfer of money to villages follows the passing of the Village Law by the House of Representatives in December last year. The government has claimed that the move will improve the welfare of the nation'€™s villagers.

'€œThe ministry and the KPK will form teams to conduct studies to ascertain the best mechanism to disburse the village fund. We will maintain coordination with the KPK to ensure that its monitoring of the disbursement encounters no obstacles,'€ Marwan said.

Meanwhile, KPK deputy for the prevention unit Johan Budi confirmed that the commission would supervise the fund disbursement, elaborating that the antigraft body would begin with brief village leaders on good governance to make sure that the funds were not misused.

'€œThis fund for villages was mandated by the Village Law. A budget of Rp 1.4 billion is a huge amount of money for a village and village institutions should be carefully educated on budget management,'€ he said at KPK headquarters on Thursday.

Johan said that prior to implementation of the commission'€™s supervisory role, it was incumbent on the government to ensure that there was no overlap among state institutions in terms of authority to disburse the budget.

'€œWe found that the Home Ministry also manages affairs related to villages. We are currently assisting the two ministries to make sure there is no overlap of authority in the disbursement of the Rp 1.4 billion to each village,'€ Johan said.

Apart from the funds mandated by the Village Law, villages may receive funds from other sources and the total amount of money received by each village varies depending on population, size, poverty rate and geographic location.

Other sources of funding include revenue from levies awarded by regencies and municipalities; financial aid from provinces, regencies and municipalities; and aid from legal sources.

The law also stipulates that village heads have a term of office of six years and can be reelected for no more than three consecutive terms.