Increasing Transparency of Social Assistance Recipients, MoSA Encourages Villages to Hold Deliberations Every Three Months

JAKARTA (May 8, 2024) - The Ministry of Social Affairs increases control over the proposed data on social assistance recipients by encouraging village / kelurahan governments to hold village deliberations (Musdes) or kelurahan deliberations (muskel) at least once every three months. The determination of social assistance recipients has been mandated in Law 13 of 2011 on Poverty Management, but in practice, the proposal for social assistance is often decided by one person without going through deliberation.

In response to this, the Ministry of Social Affairs implemented a joint supervision system where the village / kelurahan government must attach a photo of the deliberation when proposing data to the head of the social service office. If the deliberation is not carried out, the village head or lurah is obliged to make an Absolute Responsibility Letter (SPTJM).

Minister of Social Affairs Tri Rismaharini in a press conference at the Ministry of Social Affairs Office on Wednesday (8/5) said this increased supervision aims to reduce misuse. "If only one person decides, it would be different from a deliberation, because it involves many people. That is the transparency, if it is a deliberation, it is not one person who decides," she said. The Minister said that the deliberation mechanism will be applied next month and local governments will be trained soon.

Improvements were also made in terms of data verification and validation. If previously verification was carried out by data fillers, now, this is done by different people. Meanwhile, the regency/city government is responsible for managing the distribution of social assistance and BPJS Beneficiary Contributions (PBI) by estimating the number of poor people per village/kelurahan.

Furthermore, the village/kelurahan government prioritizes residents who get social assistance and BPJS PBI based on allocations from regency/city government. Meanwhile, guidance is carried out by the subdistrict government and the provincial government. The district will monitor and guide the proposal process at the village/kelurahan level, and the province for regency/ city level.

In addition to deliberations at the village/kelurahan level, the previous mechanism is still being carried out. For example, the proposal for social assistance recipients is still approved by the regent/mayor with a periodization of once a month. The Ministry of Social Affairs also continues to carry out data matching with the population and civil registration office, including matching civil servant data, certified teachers, company directors, commissioners, and wage earners with salaries above UMP (Provincial Minimum Wage).

The allocation of social assistance and BPJS PBI (health insurance) are proportional to the number of poor people obtained from BPS (Statistics Indonesia) was also improved. In addition, the mechanism for submitting information to the public through cekbansos.kemensos.go.id and proposals by the community independently through proposals/objections is also being encouraged.