"We are ready to disburse Rp1.4 billion per village, but we have to review it first," Director General of Financial Balance Boediarso Teguh Widodo said.
Bogor, W Java (ANTARA News) - Indonesia`s Finance Ministry would evaluate the effectiveness of village fund disbursement during the past three years, before it could raise its distribution to Rp1.4 billion per village in 2019.

"We are ready to disburse Rp1.4 billion per village, but we have to review it first," the ministry`s Director General of Financial Balance Boediarso Teguh Widodo said here on Tuesday.

Boediarso stated that such an evaluation was aimed at preparing a more effective regulation and improving the quality of human resource, so that the fund could effectively boost villagers` prosperity.

"If we do not improve officials` capacity building in managing village fund, a huge increase of the fund could become a loophole for embezzlement, because we have to avoid any improvidence and inefficiency," he stated.

The evaluation would also include whether the goal of the village fund would effectively alleviate poverty, absorb work forces, increase public income and purchasing power, and remove the gap among villages in public services.

"The village fund has reduced the number of poor people, its percentage, as well as Gini ratio, but is yet to have a massive effect. It means that the multiplier effect is not effective yet; thus, the fund management needs to be improved," Boediarso elaborated.

However, the increased allocation of village fund to Rp1.4 billion in 2019 would not be an easy target as it would depend on the state budget condition.

"It should be increased to 10 percent of its budget in accordance with the law on villages in 2019. If the current budget is Rp706 trillion, it would increase to Rp70 to Rp75 trillion. With 75 thousand villages, each village would receive Rp1 billion. If we have to disburse Rp1.4 billion, we would have to have larger allotment," he added.

The government in its revised state budget plan for 2017 has allocated Rp60 trillion of village funds, which is the same compared to those for 2018 state budget. With such an allotment, and 74,910 villages across the country, each village would receive Rp800 million of the fund.

As of mid-December, village fund disbursement has reached Rp59.19 trillion, or more than 99 percent of its target of Rp60 trillion.

Reported by Satyagraha
(S022/INE/a014)

Reporter: antara
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2017