PDIP legislator highlighting banks that have been difficult to disburse social assistance since 2018

Member of the House of Representatives Commission VIII, Selly Andriany Gantina, recently raised a serious issue regarding the alleged problem in the disbursement of social assistance (social assistance) involving a particular bank. He mentioned, many residents, especially in the Cirebon and Indramayu regions, complained about difficulties in disbursing the funds they were supposed to receive. This problem has even been detected since 2018 and continues to repeat until 2023 with around 16 thousand recipients who experienced obstacles.

Selly explained that this difficulty was not caused by the problem of fraud or abuse (judol), but due to the discrepancy of data between population documents and data in the bank. According to him, this incompatibility occurs between data in the Integrated List of Poor Handling System (DTSN), Family Card (KK), and Recipient KTP, with the KYUR (Know Your Customer) banking system.

The concrete case highlighted by Selly was the experience of a social assistance recipient named Darsinih. In the official document, his name is listed as “Darsinih,” but in Bank data, it only says “Darsini.” Although other information such as the Population Identification Number (NIK) and the same address, the disbursement of funds cannot be done. This shows the problem in the integration of data between various agencies that lead to difficulty access to pre-prosperous people.

Furthermore, Selly also revealed that the Ministry of Social Affairs (Ministry of Social Affairs) and the Center for Reporting and Analysis of Financial Transactions (PPATK) previously found that more than 10 million Social Assistance Recipients were related to online gambling practices. This discovery indicates a more complex problem, where the account that should be used to receive social assistance is actually misused for illegal activities.

Responding to this issue, Selly stressed the importance of transparency from the Ministry of Social Affairs and PPATK in uncovering data. He is concerned that lack of transparency can cause negative stigma to social assistance recipients, even though they are the most vulnerable community groups. “The DPR continues to side with small communities,” said Selly.

Meanwhile, he also underlined that although there were some advocacy efforts by social workers, there were no effective steps to ensure the smoothness of the Social Assistance Fund. Selly urged PPATK to investigate more deeply this matter, including finding out who benefited from this maladministration.

Selly challenged PPATK to conduct an audit of social assistance funds that settled in banks by State-Owned Bank Association (Himbara). He wants to know whether there is a pattern that shows suspicious omission or actions in the management of funds.

“How long is the money in the bank? Is there an indication of omission? That all needs to be investigated,” Selly said. Concern regarding negative framing from the Ministry of Social Affairs and PPATK for the Social Assistance Recipient was also disclosed. He examined that the statements issued tend to create bad perceptions of the community that should be protected by social programs.

Seeing this situation, there needs to be more attention from related agencies so that similar problems do not happen in the future. The accuracy and suitability of data between government institutions and banking must be taken seriously. The ability to solve this administrative problem is very crucial to ensure that the assistance prepared by the state really reaches the people in need.