Minister: Village Funds Distribution Reaches 93 Percent

Village Funds Direct Cash Assistance (BLT Desa) Scheme. (Source: Ministry of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration).

The Government has announced that distribution of Direct Cash Assistance (BLT) sourced from Village Fund has reached 69,443 villages or 93 percent of 74,953 villages, according to Minister of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration

The Minister made the statement on Tuesday (2/6) after surprise inspection of the distribution of Direct Cash Assistance (BLT) sourced from Village Fund in four regencies in Banten Province.

The Minister went on to say that the inspection was carried out since the distribution of Banten Province has only reached 20 percent. Besides Banten, there are five other provinces which distribution is below 50 percent, including East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province 44 percent, Maluku Province 44 percent, North Maluku Province 42 percent, Papua Province 20 percent, and West Papua Province 44 percent.

During the inspection, the Minister found that Regency Governments or District Governments do not immediately share the results of data synchronization. Delay of issuance of Governor Regulation on the allocation of Village Fund caused delayed transfer of  Village Funds to village bank account .

“There is no Regent’s Power of Attorney yet for transferring the fund  from the State Treasury Services Office (KPPN) to the village bank account. The existence of Regulation of Minister of Finance (PMK) Number 50 of 2020 can actually speed up the distribution progress because Regulation of Regent is no longer needed. Just report the village’s readiness to the KPPN,” the Minister said.

Also during the inspection the Minister found that Social Assistance (Bansos) at provincial and regency levels has not been distributed, while the cash assistance is expected to be disbursed after Social Assistance is distributed.

To solve this issue, village administrations will be instructed to distribute the cash assistance based on data that has been decided by Special Village Deliberation (Musdesus). Afterwards, village administrations should submit the new data to the Regional Government once the cash assistance has been distributed so that they will synchronize the data.

On that occasion, the Minister also mentioned the development of the distribution of Village Fund until 1 June 2020. Village Fund that has been transferred to village bank account has reached Rp23 trillion. As many as Rp1.4 trillion will be allocated for village cash labor-intensive programs.

“The distribution of village cash labor-intensive fund reflects that the villages are starting to move towards the ‘New Normal’ order in accordance with the Government’s plans,” the Minister added.

The Minister further said that the Village Fund used for the COVID-19 Village Response program reaches Rp2.654 trillion. The fund is allocated for prevention and handling of COVID-19, especially people under monitoring (ODP).

In the meantime, the Minister said that village administrations have determined 67,640 beneficiary families. He added that 55,042 villages have distributed the fund to, while 12,598 villages have not distributed it yet.

“The Government has covered a total of 5,806,900 beneficiary families, which consists of 1,213,506 families who have lost their livelihoods and 247,283 families who suffer from chronic diseases,” the Minister stated.

The Minister went on to say that a total of Rp3,484,140,000has been channeled to beneficiary families. To date, 153 regencies have 100 percent completed distribution of the direct cash assistance, while distribution in 144 regencies has completed 75-92 percent, 45 regions have 50-74 percent completed the distribution, and there are 69 regencies/municipalities which distribution below 50 percent , .

The Minister admitted that there are 23 regions in Papua and one village in NTT that have not been disbursed the cash assistance because they are for a postponement.

“The encouraging numbers mean that the distribution of social safety nets in the regions is quite effective,” the Minister concluded. (PR of Village Ministry / EN)

Translated by: Syarifah Aisyah
Reviewed by: Mia Medyana