T

he disbursement of state funds totalling trillions of rupiah for villages throughout the country is at risk of failing to effectively develop villages as a result of improper regulation and management, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) says.

The government is gradually distributing development funds of Rp 20.7 trillion to 74,093 villages in three stages. At the initial stage in April, the government disbursed Rp 898 billion of the funds to 63 regencies, which were to channel the money to the respective villages. The remainder of the funds will be distributed in August and October.

The KPK has conducted a study since January showing that recent revisions to the regulation on village funds have led to a lack of transparency in methods to determine the amount of funds earmarked for each regency.

'€œProvisions to determine the village funds proportion stipulated under Government Regulation No. 22/2015 are not quite transparent,'€ KPK commissioner Johan Budi said recently.

The government issued the regulation in April, which is a revision to Government Regulation No. 60/2014.

Johan said that under the current regulation, the calculation on the sum a village should receive was mostly based on the number of existing villages within a regency, referring to Article 11 of the regulation.

'€œAs much as 90 percent of the village funds is determined by the number of villages, while only 10 percent is calculated based on the number of inhabitants, poverty rate, area size and geographical complexity level,'€ he said.