JAKARTA (8 September 2021) - Social Minister Tri Rismaharini ensures that the Ministry of Social Affairs maintains its speed in updating data that is once a month. To that end, Social Minister asked the regional government to go in synch with the Ministry of Social Affairs.

“We at the Ministry of Social Affairs are working to update the data. I issue a decree (decision on the validation of poverty data – ed.) every month. So if the regional government can complement it, it will be very beneficial for the recipients of assistance,” said the Social Minister in an interview with Media Keuangan via video conference (08/09).

According to the Social Minister, updating poverty data is the task of regional governments as regulated in Law Number 13 of 2011 on Poverty Handling. The duties and authorities in data verification and validation by regional governments are regulated clearly by Law number 13/11. Referring to articles 8, 9, and 10 of Law number 13/2011, it is stated that the data updating stage is a tiered process assigned to regency/city governments.

In Article 8, for example, it is stated that the verification and validation as referred to in paragraph (4) is carried out by the potential and sources of social welfare in the district, kelurahan or village.

"So the Ministry of Social Affairs does not carry out direct data collection. The Ministry of Social Affairs is tasked with determining data which the updating process carried out by the regional government. The problem is, there are still regency/city governments that are lacking or even inactive in carrying out updates,” said the Social Minister.

The task of determining the data as conveyed by the Social Minister is regulated in Article 11 of Law no. 13/2011, which reads: (1) The verified and validated data on the poor that are submitted to the Minister as referred to in Article 8 paragraph (9) and Article 9 paragraph (4) shall be determined by the Minister.

For this reason, she reminded the regional government and its officials to be active and seriously monitor the data updating process. “The poverty data is dynamic. Some may have moved, died, some got their economy improved so that they are no longer eligible to receive it,” she said.

Social Minister Risma herself received many reports about social assistance that was not well targeted, hampered, or not distributed to beneficiaries. “I received a report about the social assistance which is still not on target. It was in Bolaang Mongondow the other day where the village head entered his own name as a beneficiary. I also found that there were beneficiaries whose houses were bigger than my official residence,” she said.

These things require close supervision from the regional government. Social Minister Risma hopes that the tiered verification process from village/sub-district then goes up to districts and to regencies/cities, should be effective.

On the other hand, the Social Minister has responded quickly to reports of this kind, either by instructing her staff to coordinate with the regional government, or she herself immediately goes to solve the problem.

Public Relations Bureau
Ministry of Social Affairs