"These assistants have already received their salaries, and that means that there is no reason for them to take anything, because they have gotten their salaries," she stressed at a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday.
She said her ministry will work with the Attorney General's Office and the police to handle cases involving misappropriation of social assistance.
Head of the Tangerang District Attorney's Office Bahrudin said misappropriation of social assistance funds has been deemed a criminal act. His office has found evidence of misappropriation by two social assistants tasked with disbursing social aid funds in four villages in Tiga Raksa Subdistrict.
The two social assistants pretended they did not get paid to make beneficiary families (KPM) feel bad so they would allow them to take "cuts" from the funds meant for the families, he explained.
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The two assistants were arrested by the Tangerang District Attorney's Office for misappropriating social assistance funds to the tune of Rp3.5 billion (about US$244 thousand) disbursed under the Family Hope Program (Program Keluarga Harapan) for four villages in Tiga Raksa Subdistrict.
"We have named the two as suspects, those being social assistants who aided four villages in Tiga Raksa Subdistrict," Bahrudin said during a press conference at the Jakarta Social Affairs Ministry Office on Tuesday.
According to investigations in 2018-2019, the two assistants, identified as TS and DKA, extorted social assistance funds of Rp50 thousand to Rp100 thousand (about US$3.5 to US$7) from beneficiary families (KPM), collecting as much as Rp 3.5 billion, he informed.
Social assistants get decent salaries, he said.
"Therefore, the beneficiary families should not tolerate such things," he stressed.
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Translator: Devi N S R, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
