BEKASI (November 8, 2019) - Director General of Social Protection and Social Security at the Ministry of Social Affairs, Harry Hikmat monitors the availability of logistics at the central warehouse located in Bekasi, West Java, Friday (11/8).

The Ministry of Social Affairs has three logistics warehouses, they are a central logistics warehouse in Bekasi, and two other regional warehouses, located in Palembang and Makassar.

These three warehouses serve as hubs (center) that ensure logistics distribution to each province which is a disaster affected area and covered by each of these regional warehouses arrive properly.

In addition to accuracy, in the process of distributing logistical assistance, warehouses have to be able to respond quickly after a disaster occurs.

"I don't want to see the Bekasi hub being used as a transit point for logistical assistance to all regions anymore. It would be better if the supplier of the goods, send them directly to the provincial warehouse," said Harry during a visit to the central logistics warehouse in Bekasi.

When disaster occurs, the Ministry of Social Affairs is the most responsible part for building a disaster management system, especially related to the clustering of refugees, protection and Psychosocial Support Services (LDP).

In carrying out these tasks, the Ministry of Social Affairs needs to improve logistical preparedness, even logistical assistance that supports the task, especially during the emergency response period.

For this reason, said Harry, it is necessary to have an effective and efficient system that supports the overall logistical distribution work system.

"Effective means logistical assistance can be distributed according to the needs. Needs, in context, based on disaster mitigation that there is a potential for disaster so there needs to have a buffer stock. This is the one that must be distributed proportionally from the three regional warehouses," explained Harry.

However, sending a logistical assistance package to the disaster area which is relatively far, for example between provinces, it requires much time and very huge funding. From this, the efficiency aspect becomes important.

"Therefore, my visit to this central logistics warehouse wants to ensure on how the function of the logistics hub owned by the Ministry of Social Affairs can be connected to the hubs in the province, even to the hubs in the districts/cities, which indeed, have high levels of vulnerability to disaster", said Harry.

Furthermore, said Harry, warehouse capacity in the province was very limited, so they often lacked of logistics. By adjusting the distribution of logistics directly to the regional warehouse closest to the location of the disaster, they do not have to wait any longer for logistics distribution from the central warehouse in Bekasi.

Harry, who was accompanied in the visit by the Director of Social Protection for Natural Disaster Victims (PSKBA), Rachmat Koesnadi and the Director of Social Protection for Social Disaster Victims (PSKBS), M. Syafii Nasution, said that he is now in the step of reviewing and will be reforming the Logistics Information System (Simlog).

Meanwhile, Harry also explained that a logistics warehouse can accommodate various types of basic needs such as side dishes (meals), footwear, family tents, velbed, mattresses, to family kitchen equipment.

Harry likened that one type of goods in a logistics warehouse could be distributed to one family. It literally means, in one disaster event, the Ministry of Social Affairs is able to help thousands of families through one regional warehouse it has.