The minister is very concerned about health workers since they are one of the frontliners in the handling of the pandemic in the regions.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian has reprimanded 10 regional heads who have not disbursed incentives to health workers in their respective regions, an official has informed.

In a statement sent via electronic message here on Tuesday, the minister’s special staff, Kastorius Sinaga, said the disbursal of regional health workers' incentives has been one of the minister’s main focuses in monitoring the regional budget (APBD) spending realization.

"The 2021 APBD refocusing policy has regulated that 8 percent of the general allocation funds and revenue sharing funds for the 2021 fiscal year are intended for the handling of COVID-19, comprising incentives payment to regional health workers," he informed.

This means that the fund availability for the incentives should have been guaranteed, he said.

However, the ministry’s routine monitoring of data that has been double-checked against the Finance Ministry and Health Ministry’s data has found that several regions have not paid incentives to health workers, he added.


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In fact, some of the regions are enforcing Level 4 community activity restrictions (PPKM), which indicates that the COVID-19 transmission is quite high in the areas, Sinaga said.

"The minister is very concerned about health workers since they are one of the frontliners in the handling of the pandemic in the regions," the special staff added.

Hence, the minister signed a warning letter on August 30, 2020 directed to 10 regional heads, urging them to immediately pay the incentives, he informed.

"The minister’s letter number 904 dated August 26, 2021 will be sent directly to the regional heads today," he said.

The letter has been addressed to the heads of 10 regions — Bandar Lampung city, Gianyar district, Langsa city, Madiun district, Nabire district, Padang city, Paser district, Penajam Paser Utara district, Pontianak city, and Prabumulih city, Sinaga said.

If the regional governments have not refocused their budget to pay the incentives, they may change their regional head regulation by announcing the plan to the members of the Regional Legislative Bodies to avoid delay in payments, he added.

The Home Affairs Ministry has been very serious in supervising local governments’ budget expenditure realization.

Minister Karnavian has directly instructed the ministry’s first echelon officers -- especially from the Inspectorate General and the Director General of Regional Finance -- to conduct weekly monitoring of the APBD realization related to the economic recovery and the handling of COVID-19 efforts in the regions.

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Translator: Boyke Watra, Uyu Liman
Editor: Suharto
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