Parents complain of food arriving cold, old or in an unhygienic condition. Doctors say the program has no measurable effect on childhood stunting or malnutrition. Yet hundreds of trillions of rupiah are being poured into the scheme, which has been sold to the public as a bold welfare measure but executed in ways that look far more like a patronage machine.

In its first year alone, the program had a budget of Rp 120 trillion (US$7.2 billion), larger than the combined budgets of the health and agriculture ministries. Yet the record shows a litany of failures, from mass food poisoning to poor quality control and no clear nutritional gains. The only clear beneficiaries are not the nation’s children but the network of political cronies who sit closest to the President’s table.

The National Nutrition Agency (BGN), the newly established institution meant to guarantee standards, inspires little confidence. Its senior team is dominated not by nutritionists or food scientists but by retired generals, police officers and political appointees.

The agency’s head Dadan Hindayana is an entomologist whose academic focus was insect protein, not child nutrition. Lodewyk Pusung and Sarwono, both retired army officers, occupy the deputy head and secretary posts, respectively.

Jimmy Alexander Adirman and Suardi Samiran, also from military backgrounds, manage inspection and operations. Brig. Gen. Sony Sonjaya comes from the National Police, while political appointee Nanik S. Deyang, better known as a journalist and activist, was parachuted in as two other deputies. Few of these figures possess formal training in nutrition, child health or food safety.

And there is the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), tasked with distributing staple goods for the program. Once designed to guarantee food security, Bulog has long since been captured by politics. Its warehouses overflow with imported rice, yet it routinely struggles to distribute supplies efficiently. Allegations of markups, procurement fraud and logistical inefficiency are perennial.